Pasta in Pesto Cream Sauce

It was liked by a close one who doesn't generally like pasta and avoids eating it! Need I say more?

Ingredients

For the pesto sauce

25-30 leaves of Italian basil (not Thai basil or Indian basil, which is our very own tulsi)
3-4 cloves of garlic
2 tbsps olive oil
6-8 walnuts
Salt to taste

For the pasta in pesto cream sauce

1 cup of penne/ fusilli pasta cooked according to packet instructions
2 tbsps olive oil
2-3 tbsps of pesto sauce
30 ml cream
200 ml milk
20 gms grated cheese (optional)
Salt to taste

Method

Blend all the ingredients of the pesto sauce in the mixer till a thick paste of chutney-like consistency is formed.

Heat a pan, add the olive oil and 2 tbsps of the pesto sauce and let it saute lightly for 2-3 mins (Italian basil becomes sweeter on cooking so do not cook too much or it will lose the piquancy completely).

Pesto sauce being sauteed in olive oil

Add in the milk, the cream and the cheese and the salt and cook till the sauce thickens. Adjust seasoning and add more pesto sauce if you want more flavour.

Pesto sauce with cream, milk and cheese added in

To this add cooked pasta and stir till the pesto cream sauce coats the pasta and cook for a couple of minutes. Add more milk if you want it creamier (it's the healthier option than cream!)

Pasta added into the pesto cream sauce

Serve hot and dig in!

Pasta in a creamy pesto sauce served hot!