Recipe: Lemony Pesto Pasta with Edamame & Almonds Six Ingredients (and Salt)

Long days and outdoor picnics call for an easy pasta recipe that everyone will enjoy. This dish is easy, healthy and very elegant.

In the height of summer, I love to make fresh pesto from the garden, but during the rest of the year, I cheat a little with my favorite store-bought brand. Having a nice dollop of the verdant sauce on anything from homemade pizza or smeared onto a sandwich, it's the brightness and intensity of flavor that I crave! Pesto and pasta however, shine as companions above all other iterations. Don't you agree?This simple recipe came together on a summer morning when scrounging around my fridge looking for something substantial that I could take to an afternoon picnic in the park. It's a great pasta dish because it doesn't really need refrigeration (it should be fine out for a few hours, unlike something with mayo or perishable eggs) and it tastes great room temperature or cold. It's the quintessential al fresco dish, full of bright bold notes — from the squeeze of the lemon, nuttiness of the pasta, toasty almond chunks and subtle toothsome bite of edamame. A bowl of this pasta, washed down with a glass of white wine or lemondade is just the thing to usher in summer parties outside.

Pesto Pasta with Lemon, Spinach, Edamame & Toasted Almonds serves 4 to 6

8 ounces spaghetti
1/2 cup pesto
8 ounces spinach
2 cups edamame (shelled and shucked, the peas, not entire pods)
juice from 2 lemons (plus fresh lemon wedges for serving)
3/4 cup almonds, crushed and lightly toasted

Heat a large pot of water to boiling, cook pasta until al dente. Remove from water, strain and rinse with cold water. In a large bowl, stir pasta, pesto and spinach until combined (some spinach will wilt, some will stay firm — this is a nice contrast of textures). Finally, stir in the edamame and squirt the lemon all over the finished dish. Reserve a few lemon slices for people to add more if they like. On a low heat, toast crushed almonds until just fragrant. Garnish pasta with the toasted almonds.

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(Images: Leela Cyd Ross)

Comments (15)

Sounds and looks like heaven!

Oh my gosh, I need this in my mouth right now.

anything you take pictures of makes me hungry! wow!

I'm making this for dinner tonight! It looks delicious and simple; just what I need mid-week. Thanks, Leela.

Leela - would you share your favorite store-bought pesto brand? My basil hasn't grown in yet, and there seems to be such wide variation in store pestos.

AG Ferari is pretty good, sold at a specialty grocery in my neighborhood in Portland. I think Trader Joe's has fine jarred pesto -- I like their sun-dried tomato version in the fresh section the best.

hope you enjoy your dinner!

I've been dreaming of this pasta salad since I saw the picture. Making it this weekend for a Mothers' Day cook out :)

This inspired me to use spinach in my dinner last night -- I cooked chicken garlic ravioli, strained them into a colandar and then stirred a big handful of baby spinach right into the pasta in the colandar; Steamed some broccolli, cauliflower & baby carrots in the microwave, and poured the water from the veggies over the spinach/pasta to further wilt the spinach -- I like it wilty. Then a big ploppo of pesto (I love Buitoni.) It was delicious, and so easy and fast.

This was totally satisfying, simple, and delicious. Even my boyfriend, a meat lover was a fan. I did add a drizzle of olive oil, salt and cracked pepper, but otherwise followed it as written. Will make again and again!

Made this last night on a sunny, warmish evening in Portland, but did not stoop to a store-bought pesto :), although I understand why one would, considering the price of pine nuts these days.

The one thing I might change is replacing the spaghetti with something a little less like to clump together, like farfalle or something.

Otherwise, really tasty and easy (even with the added pesto making task).

I made this for dinner tonight! It was great, but heavily dependent on a good pesto. Mine was not salty or garlicky enough (had to add both ingredients for it to taste right).

This was a delicioulsy inspiring dish! I had to make a lot of changes, to lighten it up and also given what was on hand, but as is would be delightful surely as written. I used wwheat spag, 1/4c juice plus a teaspoon of zest (the salad dressing we had tonight used up most of my lemons), 1/3c frozen homemade walnut pesto, chopped walnuts-2T, and half the amount of edamame, plus steamed asparagus. I guess it's a different recipe altogether that I made, but really good.

Leela do you think you can substitute swiss chard for spinach? I have swiss chard on hand but not spinach and am always looking for ways to use it.

This was amazing! very easy. I used wheat pasta, next time will use a penne or something that doesnt want to clump together so much. Use a really good pesto and I added chicken breast to mine and some feta cheese and it turned out very good. Will make this again. Did cut half the edamame and used only 1 lemon :)

This is delicious! Super easy (I'm not the best in the kitchen). I used kale instead and honey roasted almonds from Trader Joe's. Next time I might add some chicken and feta per Dori Wenke's suggestion.