Avocado Pesto Cavatelli Pasta Recipe

Green is my favorite color, but that’s not all that I love about this Avocado Pesto Cavatelli Pasta Recipe. Creamy, colorful, and healthy, this cavatelli recipe is a perfect addition to your pasta sauce repertoire.

Now, hold your horses! Before anyone gets too excited, I just need to clarify: this Avocado Pesto Cavatelli Pasta Recipe is creamy, but it doesn’t actually use cream! The consistency is achieved because of the softness of the avocado; that’s why I called it both creamy and healthy.

Warning: Nutrition rambling ahead…

By the way, whenever I speak about the health benefits of avocado, all I can think about is this image. Always makes me laugh!! But it’s true: avocados are awesome sources of monounsaturated fats, which are healthy heart fats just like olive oil. They are also a great source of fiber. I could continue to sing the praises of avocado -they’re just a super-food, overall.

But spinach, the other main ingredient of this Avocado Pesto Cavatelli Pasta Recipe, is nothing to be sneezed at either! It is just as good for you, if not more so, than avocados. Spinach is rich in antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals, and very low in calories, so pack as much of it in this pasta sauce as you want.

Making this Avocado Pesto Cavatelli Pasta Recipe couldn’t be simpler, either. While waiting for a large pot of salted water to boil, let’s start making the sauce.

Begin by toasting about a handful of walnuts. Simply place them in a pan over medium heat and give them a couple of shakes. Just a few minutes is all it takes for them to release some of their oils. Can you smell the aroma yet?

Next, add the walnuts with the rest of the ingredients in a food processor to make the avocado pesto sauce. Set on low and whirl away until mixture is smooth. Transfer to a large skillet that we will eventually set over low heat.

You will notice that it is thick. Once we throw the pasta in the boiling salted water, we will add a couple of ladles of the pasta water to thin it down. Use as much or as little of the pasta water to get the consistency of the sauce that you like.

If you make your own pesto, you can easily replace the walnuts, basil, garlic and cheese with 3-4 tablespoons of pesto. I have been known to use my Traditional Basil Pesto in this recipe.

Time to boil those cavatelli! Please note that this sauce is great with any type of pasta… we just love our Homemade Cavatelli Pasta  -so that is what I will be using! Cavatelli are quick, once the surface, they are done!

Remove the cavatelli pasta with a spider or strainer and add to the avocado pesto sauce. The only thing left to do is add more cheese and serve!!!

Origin of the recipe for Avocado Pesto Cavatelli Pasta Recipe:

Ever since she was old to eat solid foods, my daughter always refused tomato sauce. I’m not talking about grocery store tomato sauce here either! My parents would make their own sauce every September, enough to last the whole year, and my mom would use that homemade tomato sauce every Sunday to make “the gravy”.

In actual fact, we had some form of pasta three times a week (Sunday lunch, Tuesday and Thursday supper). To this day, my mom’s tomato sauce is the best I have ever tasted – and my daughter has always refused it. (By the way, I keep this tradition alive with my husband, and we still make our own tomato sauce every September! I will share my process for that one day, for sure!)

So, when my daughter was just a toddler, I had to get somewhat creative with pasta; I couldn’t rely on her to eat old faithful, our tomato sauce. I was always on the lookout for new sauce recipes! My daughter is grown now, of course, and quite a cook herself, but I guess old habits die hard: whenever I see a new kind of sauce or pasta recipe that doesn’t use tomatoes, I can’t help but try it out to report back to her 🙂

This Avocado Pesto Cavatelli Pasta Recipe reminded me of my daughter in another way, since I only really started eating avocados when my daughter showed me how delicious they could be over a decade ago! As I’ve mentioned before, my dad used to be a grocer, and as the daughter of a grocer, I knew all the tricks for picking the best fruits and vegetables at the store. But I guess I missed the memo on avocados – I would always use the bright green ones in my recipes and wonder what the whole avocado-hype was about, since they didn’t taste that good. My teen aged daughter (at the time) was the one who taught me how to tell if an avocado is ripe and that they taste best when they begin to yield, just a little, under pressure. Who knew!!!

All this to say that I found the initial inspiration for this recipe from Eating Well a couple of years ago. Using avocado as a sauce has become very popular in recent years and with good reason. If you haven’t tried it, you are in for a nice surprise!

Everything about this recipe reminded me of my daughter – the fact that it wasn’t tomato sauce, the fact that it used avocados – so I had to try it.

I love this Avocado Pesto Cavatelli Pasta Recipe, and, I am happy to say it, so does my daughter. Do you have any recipes that remind you very strongly of a loved one? Share them with me in the comments below!

5 from 3 votes

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Avocado Pesto Cavatelli Pasta Recipe

Green is my favorite color, but that’s not all that I love about this Avocado Pesto Cavatelli Pasta Recipe. Creamy, colorful, and healthy, this cavatelli recipe is a perfect addition to your pasta sauce repertoire.

Course Side Dish

Cuisine Canadian Italian

Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 5 minutes

Total Time 10 minutes

Servings 4 servings

Calories 625 kcal

Author adapted from Eating Well

Ingredients

• 1 pound cavatelli pasta I use half of my homemade cavatelli recipe
• 1-2 cups reserved pasta water or to desired consistency

Avocado Pesto Sauce:

• 1 avocado
• 1 cup spinach leaves fresh
• 1-2 cloves garlic
• 1 bunch basil fresh
• 1/2 cup walnuts lightly toasted
• 1/4 cup Pecorino Romano grated
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice freshly squeezed

Toppings:

• Extra virgin olive oil to drizzle
• Pecorino Romano cheese to taste
• garnish with fresh basil leaves optional

Instructions

1. Over high heat, bring a large pot of salted water to a rolling boil. 

2. While waiting for the water to boil, make the avocado pesto sauce by adding all the ingredients in a food processor and pulsing until mixture is smooth. Transfer to a large skillet set over low heat.

3. Add the pasta to the boiling water and cook until al dente or to desired  consistency. 

4. Add pasta water to the avocado pesto sauce in order to obtain desired consistency.

5. Combine the sauce and the pasta.

6. Top with extra cheese and a drizzle of olive oil, if using.

7. Serve immediately.

Recipe Notes

Any pasta can be used with this sauce. 

This sauce is at its best the day it is made as it quickly turns brown because of the avocado.

1 serving = 1 1/2 cups

Please keep in mind that the nutritional information provided below is just a rough estimate and variations can occur depending on the specific ingredients used. 

 

 

Nutrition Facts

Avocado Pesto Cavatelli Pasta Recipe

Amount Per Serving (1 serving)

Calories 625 Calories from Fat 180

% Daily Value*

Total Fat 20g 31%

Saturated Fat 3g 15%

Cholesterol 6mg 2%

Sodium 91mg 4%

Potassium 602mg 17%

Total Carbohydrates 92g 31%

Dietary Fiber 8g 32%

Sugars 3g

Protein 20g 40%

Vitamin A 18.2%

Vitamin C 10.8%

Calcium 12.4%

Iron 13.8%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

Thanks for dropping by,

Ciao for now!

Maria 🙂

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