Homemade pappardelle with pesto, zucchini & goats cheese – fresh, easy pappardelle with a basil-parsley herb oil & blistered cherry tomatoes. Jump to Recipe
Pasta is one of my great, giant food loves. I can’t even put a finger on why. Maybe it’s the way it can hold and showcase any number of flavours and produce – from gently roasted autumnal tomatoes to rich, tender winter ragu or light spring herbs and greens. Maybe it’s the comfort factor – something about a warm, steaming bowl of pasta screams home. A reminder of family weekend dinners and Mum’s classic ‘roast chicken & vegetable pasta’ – a heaving pot of fresh tortellini, oven roasted vegetables and barbecued chicken thighs, drenched with her go-to tomato sauce of slowly sweated onions and garlic. Maybe it’s the convenience, of coming home tired and throwing together a box of dried pasta with whatever ingredients are on hand and always ending up with a satisfying meal.
Despite all this, I’ve barely entered the realm of homemade pasta. We do have a pasta machine, courtesy of my youngest brother’s kindergarten pasta making day. It left him with the sort of obsession only four year olds have – fleeting but intense – and resulted in a pasta machine birthday present. It was used once, an attempt that left a flour coated kitchen and whole afternoon effort from Mum while he got distracted part way through. Let’s just say it was subsequently relegated to the top shelf of the cupboard with other obsolete appliances. A few years later, the same cycle happened with an ice cream churner, culminating in a couple of batches of mint-choc chip (their favourite flavour, for reasons I still do not understand) and even less cupboard space. Fast forward ten years, and I’m now the main user of both machines – I call that a win, thanks brothers!
Thanks to Erin’s quick and mess-free food processor pasta dough recipe, I’m now a pasta making convert. This excludes week nights when the point of making pasta is an extra quick meal, or when I’m feeding my three brothers and don’t want to spend years rolling pasta sheets – simply because they eat a stupid amount of food, and then ask for seconds. Last time I tried it I needed 10 eggs worth of dough to serve us all! The rest of the time, it’s strangely meditative – the process of rolling and folding, rolling and folding, rolling progressively thinner widths and finally cutting noodles to dry. I personally favour thick widths of parpadelle over thin spaghetti strings – all the better for catching your sauce – and there’s nothing as human and homely as slightly uneven handcut noodles.
This pappardelle with pesto, zucchini & goats cheese is made for the long, warm evenings of February. It’s an ode to summer vegetables – vibrant green zucchini and multi-coloured cherry tomatoes with handfuls of garden basil and parsley, brightened up with lemon and briny capers. The tomatoes are quickly blistered whole over a high heat, skin loosened and scorched, while the zucchini takes a few minutes in a hot pan with generous salt and pepper. The herbs are blitzed to make a pesto-like herb oil, and it’s all combined in the cooking pot just before serving. Hints of creamy, tangy goats cheese finish it off.
Unfortunately I don’t have my own vegetable garden here in Melbourne, though back in Auckland my youngest brother’s newest interest is his little vegetable plot. It’s absolutely flourished this summer and produced bags of the biggest tomatoes I’ve ever seen!
Fresh, easy pappardelle with a basil-parsley herb oil, blistered cherry tomatoes & zucchini.
- 1 batch pappardelle pasta (recipe below)
- 1 1/2 cups basil leaves
- 3/4 cup parsley leaves
- 1 large clove garlic
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- zest of 1 lemon
- juice of 1/2 lemon
- 1 punnet assorted cherry tomatoes
- 1/2 teaspoon chili flakes
- 2 large zucchini , cut into rounds
- 2-3 tablespoons capers
- 100 g goats cheese , crumbled
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In a blender or food processor, combine the basil, parsley, garlic, olive oil and lemon zest and juice. Blitz until it is a pesto-like consistency. Set aside.
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Meanwhile, heat a large pan over medium-high heat with a quick drizzle of olive oil. Add the whole cherry tomatoes and chilli flakes. Cover the pan and cook for 3-5 minutes, gently shaking the pan occasionally to prevent burning, until the tomatoes are just starting to blister and burst. Remove from the heat and set aside.
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In the same pan (no need to wash it) with another drizzle of olive oil, cook the zucchini rounds until golden on each side. You may need to do this in 2 batches, depending on the size of your pan.
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To cook the pasta, bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil. Salt generously. If using store bought pasta, cook according to packet instructions. If using homemade parpadelle, carefully cook for about 4 minutes or until al dente, using tongs to detangle any strands that might stick together.
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Drain the pasta and add back to the pot. Add the basil-parsley herb oil, cherry tomatoes, zucchini, capers and goats cheese. Toss to combine. Serve immediately.
- 4 large eggs
- 385 g all purpose flour
- extra flour for dusting surfaces
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Place the eggs and flour in a food processor. Pulse until it resembles a crumble (chunky couscous, as Erin said) and should hold together when you pinch some between your fingers.
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If it is a little dry (I’ve never had to do this, but maybe if your eggs were small), add water a teaspoon at a time and pulse to combine.
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Turn the dough out onto plastic wrap and press together into a disc. Wrap tightly and rest at room temperature for 30 minutes to an hour.
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Divide the dough into 6 pieces. Work with one at a time and keeping the others covered.
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Flatten the dough with your hands into a small rectangle and run through the rollers of a pasta machine on the widest setting. Fold in half and run through again, still on the widest setting. Repeat 4 or 5 times to develop the gluten.
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Continue to run pasta through the machine, this time adjusting to a narrower setting each time (without folding it in half), until you get to the second or third narrowest width. Mine is a kenwood attachment and I finished on 8 out of 9.
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Lay the sheet of pasta out on a lightly floured bench, and lightly dust the top side with flour.
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Repeat process with remaining 5 pieces of dough.
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To cut the sheets into strips, cut each sheet in half (so the half-length will be the length of your strips). Gently fold into thirds and cut into 2cm strips with a sharp knife. Unfold the parpadelle. Hang the pasta out on a pasta drying rack or a clothes horse until you are ready to cook it.
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To cook the pasta, bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil. Salt generously. Carefully add the pasta and cook for about 4 minutes or until al dente, using tongs to detangle any strands that might stick together. Drain and use immediately.
i’m wishing my brother had been obsessed enough to land me a pasta machine but alas, not to be. i love how the wide pappardelle looks, and love even more the prospect of anything that can better hold more bits of pesto.
hahaha I got a bit lucky there! thanks Heather. I can’t wait to try the pappardelle in winter with rich, meaty ragu.. so many options!
Nothing can beat fresh homemade pasta…sounds really delicious:)
100% agree. I need to make it more often! thanks Maria 🙂
This looks so delicious!!! Definitely will have to add this to my “must try” list!
Thanks Christiann!!
omg!! the pappardelle looks amazing Claudia! this is total inspiration for me, i too have a pasta machine and i’ve only used it once – to make puff pastry!! lol. beautiful post and images Xx
ahah so the baking blogger comes out!! that’s such a genius way to use it though – like how Erin uses it to make the lattice for her pie crust. thanks Thalia! (PS when are you heading to Paris? I’m there in June!!)
This looks amazing!! Pappardelle is my favorite pasta and I think I need to dust off my pasta machine asap
thanks Fatimah!!
I wish I had brothers whose cooking equipment I could inherit. My sister burns water 🙁 This looks so amazing and vibrant and all things delicious Claudia.
Hahah I got a bit lucky there – but the rest of their cooking ability only extends to pasta sauce, fried eggs and chocolate self saucing pudding. balanced diets, huh?! thanks Ruby!!
I too need to delve more into pasta making. Mostly I make my own Chinese noodles. I have always thought that papardelle is such a simple pasta to make, I really should do it. Alas, it keeps getting placed on the back burner. Lovely recipe as always love!
Oh I’d love to learn to make Chinese noodles! They look phenomenal – but one of those things that keeps getting placed on my back burner haha! Thanks Jenny, hope you’re well! x
those giant ribbons of pasta look SO delicious Claudia!!! I made pasta at home awhile ago but then fell out of it, but this is the perfect inspiration for me to dive back in it and make fresh pasta. Just looking at photos of this dish makes me realize how inferior store-bought pasta is…
thanks Betty!!! I was so surprised by how simple it was to pull together, too. I just bought a pasta attachment for my kenwood which is SO much easier than the hand-wound machine we have at home, so that’s what has made it even faster! x
I used to make homemade pasta quite a bit, but fell out of the habit. Probably because there’s a really good Italian shop down the road that makes it for me, but that’s so lazy of me. I should give it another go! I don’t think I ever tried pappardelle, which has become a favorite. I love all of the flavors in this dish!
hahahah I’d be tempted by a fresh pasta shop nearby too – especially for harder filled pastas. Definitely give pappardelle a go, I find it much easier to just cut up wide noodles than to fiddle with spaghetti. Thanks Jennifer!
OH man – this sounds so good! My boyfriend and I just made homemade pasta for Valentine’s Day after about a year break from not using the pasta maker and we are hooked again! I forgot how easy it is and the results are obviously 10x better than the box stuff.
That sounds like the ultimate Valentine’s Day meal, to be honest. Can’t really top homemade pasta! Thanks Shelly x
This looks absolutely amazing, Claudia! Will be testing this on my housemates this week!
Oh thanks Lucy! Would love to know what you think. PS I need to pick your brain on Europe (managed to find some $950 return flights in June, woohoo!!) – coffee sometime?
Ooh that’s so good — Europe in summer is so nice! Yeah, definitely!
Yaaaaaay I’m so glad that you liked the recipe! (if you can call it that haha). So many people see pasta as something that takes forever, but I reckon I could definitely bring the dough together quicker than it would take me to walk to the shop and buy dried stuff! Fresh is a total game changer! This looks amazing.
xx
Loved it – would never have thought about using a food processor otherwise! And as much as I don’t want summer to end, also can’t wait for winter so I can use it with that ragu sauce! xx
This post has got me longing for summer so badly! Not to mention, it has been way too long since I have made homemade pasta!
C’était délicieux, merci pour cette recette !!! It was delicious thank tou for the receipe !!
So glad you liked it, thank you for letting me know!
Wow, as I step away from my sweet tooth, I have to say that this is one of my most favorite recipes. All of vegetables, cheese, and herbs complimented each other so well. And the homemade pasta was really to die for! Two thumbs up!
Making this tonight. With that I have to comment on the ubiquitous food blog phenomenon of including 40-50 photos of what the plate of food looks like from myriad angles. PLEASE spare us the torture, 2-3 photos are needed at most, having to sprint past an endless stream of pictures to get to the ingredient list and directions is not enjoyable and does not add to the experience of the dish. That said, looking forward to having this dish tonight.
Hi Rob, hope you enjoyed the pasta! Had a look and I’m pretty sure there were only about 8-10 photographs on this post so maybe 40-50 is a little bit of an exaggeration? I love taking photographs and always find it hard to cut them down, which is why I include a ‘jump to recipe’ link at the top of each post. If you click on that it takes you straight down to the recipe without the scroll – hope you can make use of that in future! 🙂
couple thoughts: regarding the lemon juice, the juice from lemons vary widely from mild to very tart. best to add it to the pesto in small doses, mixing and tasting to taste. same for goat cheese which can range from mild chevre to very goaty tasting cheese. for this dish i used chevre with great results.
Does one batch make enough for 6? Or do I need to double this recipe? Thanks
Hi Sarah, apologies I missed this comment. One batch makes enough for 4-5, so I would probably do a 1.5x recipe to serve 6. Hope it went well!
This looks so good! What a great summertime lunch meal prep for the week!
Thanks for sharing! Does it keep long ?