No Cook Walnut Pesto Sauce with Spaghetti

The other night it was dinnertime, but it was so hot. Yes, I know it’s Texas but it’s also barely May. It was hot enough though that our electric company had texted to please try to conserve electricity. Wanting to do my part, I tried to figure out the best way to make dinner without adding extra heat to the house. It actually wasn’t that hard to do.

The Kid thankfully had batch cooked spaghetti the other night and she had leftovers in the fridge. Proud mom moment there. My kid batch cooks! I grabbed the noodles and a bunch of veggies and made a no cook pesto sauce! I bulked up the volume by adding in zucchini noodles. The funny thing was that even without cooking, the house smelled like an Italian kitchen with the garlic, basil and herbs.

No Cook Walnut Pesto Sauce with Spaghetti 

• 1 medium beefsteak tomato
• 1 cup fresh basil
• 4 tsp walnut oil
• 1 1/2 tsp minced garlic
• 1 – 2 pinches crushed red pepper, to taste
• 2 small zucchini squash, julienned or spiralized
• 3 cups cooked spaghetti noodles
• 1/2 cup grape tomatoes, halved
• 4 tsp parmesan cheese

Slice the tomato or cut into chunks. Add the tomato, basil, walnut oil, garlic, and red pepper to your Magic Bullet or food processor. Blend until smooth. You may need to add a splash of water depending on how ripe your tomato is.

Microwave the pasta noodles to warm them or cook them according to package directions if you don’t have leftovers ready. Toss the zucchini, pasta noodles, and grape tomatoes halves with the sauce. Divide onto plates and sprinkle with parmesan cheese.

Makes 4 servings at approximately 259 calories each – 9g protein, 40g carbs, and 7g fat.

Notes

• I have a basil bush in my backyard so I just went out and picked two big stems of it. Fresh basil smells wonderful. I picked off all the leaves and saved leftovers for a few other recipes.
• I didn’t really track the tomato varieties separately. To-MAY-to, To-MAH-to, right? The total weight of the beefsteak and the grape tomatoes was 400 grams. You can divide the proportions however you’d like. If you have more grape tomatoes, just throw them into the blender with the others and save a few halves to toss with the pasta and sauce.
• You can use olive oil instead of walnut oil if you’d like. I had walnut on hand so I grabbed that for a flavor change.

Hopefully this heat breaks a bit. Spring is due to return in a couple days. I say that meaning I’d like a day or two under 90 degrees, LOL. Everything is relative. If not, I have plenty of tomatoes and basil to make more no cook pesto. 😉

By the way – If you still haven’t tried a spiralizer yet, what’s stopping you? It’s a game changer for adding veggies to your meals in creative ways. I use mine almost daily and make things like Zucchini Noodle Pad Thai and Pork Paprikash. It’s also fun to turn beets and sweet potatoes into curly shapes before roasting.