Roasted Broccoli Pesto Pasta

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

Broccoli pesto is a quick and easy pasta sauce. By roasting broccoli at a high temperature, you can cook it in 10 minutes or so. Then the food processor does the work chopping and pureeing everything into pesto.

This recipe has less than 10 ingredients. There is nothing complicated about this vegetable-focused pasta, and it still delivers on taste. It’s great for a weeknight vegetarian dinner.

Pesto is a year-round sauce. Don’t limit yourself to basil pesto, which tastes best during the summer. Just change the feature ingredient depending on the season. Broccoli is great for fall and winter pastas.

The Ingredients

This is what you need:

• Broccoli: When you are choosing broccoli, the individual florets should be tightly packed together. Avoid any that are yellowing because they won’t be as fresh.
• Penne: My first pick for pasta is penne with ridges, so this more chunky pesto will really cling to the noodles. You can also substitute with orecchiette or fusilli. 
• Pine nuts: Toast the pine nuts before you add them to the pesto. You can do this in the oven on a sheet pan at 350 degrees F for about 5 minutes. Just make sure to watch the nuts, so they don’t get too dark. You can use chopped walnuts or almonds instead.
• Garlic: The recipe calls for 2 garlic cloves. If you prefer it less garlicky, then just use 1 clove.
• Parmesan: Just like a classic basil pesto, this one has Parmesan cheese. For another hard cheese option, pecorino, which is more pungent and salty, will also work in this pesto.
• Lemon: Fresh lemon juice adds brightness to the broccoli pasta. Always use fresh and never bottled.
• Olive oil, kosher salt & black pepper: For the best flavor, use high quality extra virgin olive oil to roast the broccoli and in the pesto. I season the broccoli before it roasts, and then I add a little more when I puree the pesto.

How To Make This Roasted Broccoli Pesto Recipe

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

1. Toss the broccoli with oil, salt and pepper. You can do this right on the baking sheet. Spread it out in a single layer taking advantage of all the space on the pan.

2. Roast the broccoli. Because the oven temperature is high, the broccoli will roast fast. It should turn out lightly browned at the edges, but still crisp.

3. Put the pesto ingredients in a food processor blender. That includes roasted broccoli, garlic, pine nuts, parmesan and lemon juice. Finely chop them. You will only need a cup of broccoli for the pesto. The rest you will fold into the pasta.

4. Drizzle the oil into the feeder tube and puree the pesto until it is fully combined.

5. Cook the pasta in salted boiling water. Follow the recommended cook time on the package for al dente pasta. Save 1/2 cup cooking water and drain the pasta.

6. Stir the pesto into the pasta. Then add the roasted broccoli and a splash of the reserved pasta water as needed.

Serving

You can serve this broccoli pasta with a basic arugula salad with lemon vinaigrette, a classic house salad or an Italian chopped salad. For a vegetable side dish, try sautéed brussels sprouts or sautéed broccolini. You can also serve it with a piece of bread with a nice crust that you can dip into the pesto sauce. 

Recipe Tips

• If you use different pasta shape than penne, make sure it is a short one. Long thin noodles like spaghetti will get weighed down by this chunky sauce.
• Make sure not to overcook the pasta. As mentioned, follow the recommended package cook time. The noodles should be al dente and have some bite.
• Don’t forget to save some of the pasta cooking water. This pesto is thicker than fresh basil pesto. You may not need the entire half cup of that starchy water, but it will help the sauce coat the noodles.
• Scrape down the sides of the food processor after you chop the ingredients and before you drizzle in the oil. This will help the pesto puree more evenly.

More Broccoli Pasta Recipes

Roasted Broccoli Pasta Salad
Butternut Squash & Broccoli Orzo
Baked Tortellini with Broccoli
Roasted Broccoli Orzo

This pasta is part of my guide to easy pasta recipes for every season featuring veggie-packed ideas for all year long.