Summer Herb Pasta with Toasted Pistachios
This is an easy summer herb pasta that should be in your repertoire the whole season. The pasta sauce is infused with fragrant herbs and cheese, plus it’s served with a generous amount of whipped burrata, ricotta and cream cheese. Add lots of toasted pistachios, freshly ground black pepper and chopped fresh herbs before serving this summer herb pasta for an insanely simple and delicious meal. In less than 25 minutes, and that’s including prep time!
Welcome to what happens in my kitchen every week. It doesn’t get more real than this dish. This kind of pasta is something I probably make almost two times a week. At the very least, one. And when you read the recipe you will see why. These recipes for everyday pasta dishes require barely 10 to 15 minutes of prep. You cook the sauce and vegetables in the same skillet while the pasta is cooking. And then you transfer the pasta to the skillet and everything comes together. This kind of summer herb pastas is why I fell in love with cooking. For me it’s clever and amazing how something this easy could be extraordinarily delicious.
But this isn’t just another summer herb pasta recipe post. If there’s something I want you to take out of this post is that you can make this kind of pastas even without any particular recipes on hand. The process is almost the same every time: sauté veggies and small pieces of protein such as chopped chicken, fish pieces or shrimp, use the remaining oil and seasonings to build up your sauce, add some liquid, including some of the pasta sauce, infuse liquid with cheese, herbs and extra seasonings and wrap everything up by transferring the pasta to the skillet and cooking it for two to three minutes to let the pasta absorb the sauce before serving right away.
How to make this easy Summer Herb Pasta
Here’s how I put this summer herb pasta together so you have an idea of how to organize yourself:
I started by taking out the ingredients to have them accessible. Cooking times between steps are pretty fast so it’s better to have everything handy.
Then I whipped the burrata, ricotta, and cream cheese. Cream cheese is completely optional, but it really brings a nice tang besides all its creaminess. The cheeses need to be at room temperature but if you are in a hurry just warm them in the microwave in increments of 10 seconds on low power level.
I brought the water to a boil in a large pot and started cooking the spaghetti for this summer herb pasta dish.
While moving the spaghetti every now and then, I keep on with toasting the pistachios with the thyme leaves (to scrape the thyme leaves just hold tightly the top of a sprig and with your other hand scrape down the leaves). Then sauté the capers and pour the liquid in the recipe, including some of the pasta water. Always use some of the pasta water because it’s a key step in achieving a thick and rich pasta sauce that sticks to the pasta due to the starch in the water.
Next I added the herbs to infuse the sauce. This is another step that you can do with other pasta dish recipes.
When the spaghetti was al dente, I removed the herbs from the liquid and added some butter, lemon juice and cheese. I then transferred the pasta to the skillet, tossing carefully with kitchen thongs to prevent breaking the noodles.
I finished everything up with some traditional finishing touches when making pastas: some extra butter, cheese, incorporating any additional ingredients which in the case of this summer herb pasta recipe are the pistachios, and adding extra fresh herbs and freshly ground black pepper. It’s that simple and in a cooking time of less than 25 minutes!
And remember that there’s not such thing as too much fresh thyme, basil or cheese for serving!
This summer herb pasta is so delicate and light it will go well with any lightly seasoned white fish, shrimp, mussels or chopped chicken breast. I served it with sauté shrimp in olive oil and seasoned with paprika, chili powder, garlic powder, salt and lemon juice. That was all! The pairing was pure perfection so that’s why I decided to share this super simple shrimp recipe even if the guys are not in the picture. It was so, so, so good!!
I can’t wait to hear all your comments about this summer herb pasta recipe that will be a little gem on your kitchen. Hope you enjoy it as much as we did!
Summer Herb Pasta Infused with Toasted Pistachios
Ingredients
Whipped Burrata
◯ Burrata – 4 oz (1 ball of cheese)
◯ Ricotta – ½ cup
◯ Cream cheese (optional) – 4 TBSP
(All cheeses must have at least lost the chill before whipping)
Whip the three cheeses until lighter and well combined either with a hand whisk or with an electric hand mixer or a stand mixer with the whisk attached. Reserve.
Summer Herb Pasta
◯ Spaghetti – 8 oz.
◯ Fine sea salt – 1 TBSP + a few pinches
◯ Raw pistachios – ¼ to ⅓ cup
◯ Fresh thyme sprigs – 12
◯ Olive oil – 2 TBSP
◯ Capers – 1 TBSP
◯ Organic chicken stock – 2 cups
◯ Freshly squeezed lemon juice – about 3 TBSP, divided (juice of 1 large lemon)
◯ Rosemary sprigs – 4
◯ Tarragon springs – 3
◯ Basil stems – 5
◯ Butter – 3 TBSP
◯ Asiago cheese, grated – ½+ cup, divided + more to serve
◯ Some of the pasta water for making the sauce
◯ Freshly ground black pepper to serve
Sautéed Shrimp (optional)
◯ Large prawns, thawed and cut transversally (if desired) – 8 to 10 pieces
◯ Fine sea salt - ⅛ Tsp plus a pinch
◯ Paprika – ¼ Tsp
◯ Chili powder – ¼ Tsp or less
◯ Garlic powder - ⅛ Tsp
◯ Extra virgin olive oil – 1 TBSP
◯ A bit of freshly squeezed lemon juice
Details
Yield:
4 to 6 persons
Total time:
25 minutes
Active time:
25 minutes
Equipment:
large nonstick skillet, large cooking spoon, pasta cooking spoon, kitchen thongs. You can cut this recipe in half but only reduce the amount of liquids used by ¼.
Steps
For making the pasta:
Start by making your pasta according to instructions. For this amount of pasta I boil 5 cups of water in a large deep pot and when rapidly boiling sprinkle one tablespoon of fine sea salt, then stir to dissolve it. I added the pasta and cooked it for 10 minutes.. Remember to move the pasta around every few minutes to prevent it from sticking.
While the pasta is cooking, heat a nonstick large skillet on medium-high heat. Toss the pistachios, the leaves of 2 sprigs of thyme and a pinch of salt until nuts are fragrant and brownish, about 3 minutes. Remember to toss the nuts to prevent them from burning. Transfer nuts from skillet and reserve.
Immediately pour in the olive oil and add the capers. Sauté for 1 minute, moving constantly. Pour chicken stock, half of the lemon juice and transfer 4 cooking spoons of the pasta water to the skillet. Submerge five sprigs of the thyme, rosemary, tarragon and 2 stems of the basil. Decrease heat to medium.
In the meantime, finely chop your pistachios.
When pasta is about to reach its cooking time, remove all herbs and add 2 tablespoons of the butter and add ¼ cup of the Asiago cheese. Move until cheese starts melting. Using a whitefly spoon (spaghetti cooking spoon) transfer spaghetti to skillet and using kitchen thongs toss spaghetti with sauce. Add the remaining butter, lemon juice and cheese and toss once more. Cook for about two minutes, tossing every few seconds to prevent pasta form sticking to the bottom of the skillet. Liquid should be bubbly but not boiling heavily. If so, decrease the heat just a little bit.
Remove from heat and incorporate the capers and almost all of the chopped pistachios, tossing once more to combine. Scrap leaves from remaining thyme sprigs (see notes above) and chop remaining basil leaves and toss once more.
Spread a spoonful of the whipped burrata mixture on the plate. Then serve some of the spaghetti on top, sprinkling the remaining chopped pistachios and freshly ground black pepper. Add more grated Asiago cheese and more chopped fresh basil leaves or thyme leaves if desired.
For making the shrimp:
Mix all the ingredients in a bowl.
Heat a small or medium skillet over medium-high heat. Place shrimps and cook for a bit more than one minute per side, splashing with the lemon juice when turning them over. They should be a bit burnt around the edges. Remove from heat and serve over pasta.
