Pesto Pasta Recipe with Vegetables from My Burpee Plants Garden
Not sure what to do with the basil and veggies in your garden? Read about what we grew + try my pesto pasta recipe with vegetables!
Pesto Pasta Recipe with Vegetables from My Burpee Plants Garden
Since moving in together, Adam and I have discovered a love for plants and gardening. He definitely has more of a green thumb than I do, but I’m the one who gets really excited about turning the vegetables and herbs we grow into delicious meals we can eat! In fact, this is now our 4th summer in a row that we have had a summer garden with a variety of goodies from Burpee Plants – and we cannot recommend them enough.
Burpee Plants was created to make gardening easy, and all of their plants are trialed and selected to ensure that you have success with them when you plant them at home. Whether you have a condo patio, city rooftop, small sunny corner or a full garden – they have something for you! They also have a TON of information on their website about every single plant, how much sun/water it needs, when to harvest, and more. How cool is that?!
Want to try them out? Just go to their Store Locator and enter your zip code to find retailers near you!
What We’re Growing This Year
Burpee Plants Basil Emerald Towers
This basil has been an absolute DREAM this summer. So fresh and sweet and pretty! Highly recommend this one even if you don’t think of yourself as a great gardener. Plus, you can use it in the recipe at the bottom of this post!
Burpee Plants Eggplant Asian Delite
Adam usually doesn’t like eggplant, and he LOVES this kind! It’s more slender with less seeds than the bigger eggplants you usually see, which also means that it’s more tender and less bitter. They’ve also been surprisingly easy to grow in a planter on the deck!!
Burpee Plants Dragon Roll Hybrid Peppers
These peppers have been the first to thrive – and they are delicious. It says “hot” in the description, but they really aren’t at all. In fact, they only have a Scoville rating of 200 (jalapenos have 2,000-8,000!). They actually remind me a lot of shishito peppers!! We initially missed their recommendation to pick them before they transition to red, but they still tasted good after turning red. I chopped them up and cooked them with the eggplant in this recipe, but I plan on keeping them whole next time and using this simple recipe. YUM!
Burpee Plants Pepper Aleppo
These bad boys are still green, but I’m really excited to cook with them once they ripen! They are a little spicier than a jalapeno, which should make them fun to add to some Mexican recipes!
Burpee Plants Peppers From Heaven Red
If you don’t like spicy peppers, these are sweet peppers and I plan on simply washing them, cutting them and dipping them in all the dips!!
Burpee Plants Darkstar Beefsteak Tomato
I live for fresh summer tomatoes so I am counting down the minutes until these ripen! Here I come, Pan con Tomate! We usually grow smaller tomatoes, but we got excited about this variety because it is resistant to late blight which is a common disease in tomatoes. It’s also been tested for all common seedborne diseases to ensure the highest quality. Isn’t that so cool?!
Flowers from PanAmerican Seed
We also got some additional flowers from PanAmerican Seed – they have tons of options, too!
Wave Petunias
I think petunias in railing flower beds are so charming, and these are absolutely beautiful!
Pesto Pasta Recipe with Vegetables
ingredients
2 cups fresh basil leaves from Burpee Plants Basil Emerald Towers
2 cloves of garlic
1/2 cup fresh parsley
2 tbsp pine nuts
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/4 cup grated romano cheese
1/2 – 3/4 cup olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
1 lb pasta
2 Burpee Plants Eggplants (Asian Delite)
8 Burpee Plants Dragon Roll Peppers
1-2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 tbsp olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
instructions
- Add basil, parsley, garlic, and pine nuts to a food processor. Pulse until thoroughly chopped.
- Add olive oil to your food processor, starting with 1/2 cup and adding a little bit more at a time as needed.
- Add parmesan and romano cheese and pulse again, just until everything is combined.
- Season with salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.
- Cut eggplants into rounds and chop the peppers.
- Add them both to a bowl with olive oil, minced garlic, salt, and pepper.
- Set a pan over medium heat. Once the pan is hot, add the eggplant and peppers. Saute for about 15 minutes, or until the eggplant get a little char on the outside and is soft on the inside.
- Make a pound of pasta according to the instructions on the package.
- Drain the pasta and then mix your pesto sauce in.
- Transfer pesto pasta to a serving bowl and top with the sauteed eggplant. Enjoy immediately!
Use different vegetables!
If you don’t love eggplant and/or don’t have it on hand, don’t worry! You could add any garden vegetables to this pesto pasta! We are also growing Burpee Plants Tomato BlushingStar and Tomato DarkStar, and as soon as they’re ripe, I will 100% chop those up and add them to dishes like this! You could also saute some zucchini, bell peppers, squash, or anything else you’re growing or craving.
Pesto Pasta Recipe with Vegetables
Ingredients
- 2 cups fresh basil leaves from Burpee Plants Basil Emerald Towers
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 1/2 cup fresh parsley
- 2 tbsp pine nuts
- 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
- 1/4 cup grated romano cheese
- 1/2 - 3/4 cup olive oil
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 1 lb pasta
- 2 Burpee Plants Eggplants (Asian Delight)
- 8 Burpee Plants Dragon Peppers
- 1-2 cloves of garlic, minced
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Add basil, parsley, garlic, and pine nuts to a food processor. Pulse until thoroughly chopped.
- Add olive oil to your food processor, starting with 1/2 cup and adding a little bit more at a time as needed.
- Add parmesan and romano cheese and pulse again, just until everything is combined.
- Season with salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.
- Cut eggplants into rounds and chop the peppers.
- Add them both to a bowl with olive oil, minced garlic, salt, and pepper.
- Set a pan over medium heat. Once the pan is hot, add the eggplant and peppers. Saute for about 15 minutes, or until the eggplant get a little char on the outside and is soft on the inside.
- Make a pound of pasta according to the instructions on the package.
- Drain the pasta and then mix your pesto sauce in.
- Transfer pesto pasta to a serving bowl and top with the sauteed eggplant. Enjoy immediately!
Notes
Feel free to replace the eggplant and peppers with whatever you have on hand or enjoy the most!
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 6 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 426Total Fat: 25gSaturated Fat: 5gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 18gCholesterol: 11mgSodium: 307mgCarbohydrates: 45gFiber: 7gSugar: 7gProtein: 10g
This post was sponsored by Burpee Plants. As always, all opinions are my own. Thank you for supporting the brands that make Lake Shore Lady possible!
