Pasta with Tarragon Pesto

By
La Cuisine de Géraldine

Not just for bearnaise

Tarragon is an herb that can be found in many traditional French sauces such as bearnaise sauce or tartare sauce. It was just after making one of these sauces and I still had fresh tarragon that I said to myself “how could I cook with tarragon any other way?”. It is an herb that has a slightly peppery taste and a very particular aroma that goes particularly well with fish and lemon. This is also why I added lemon in my recipe.

Ingredients

For the pasta

  • 400 g of your favorite pasta

  • 40 g pine nuts

  • Parmesan cheese

  • extra virgin olive oil

  • Salt and Pepper

For the tarragon pesto

  • 1 bunch of tarragon

  • 2 garlic cloves, peeled

  • 1/2 lemon juice

  • 2 tablespoons of toasted pine nuts

  • 25 g parmesan

  • 75 ml olive oil

  • Salt and pepper

Preparations

Cook the pasta

Cook the pasta in boiling water as directed on the package. Reserve 10 cl of pasta water taken at the end of cooking.

Tarragon pesto

Remove the leaves from the tarragon stems. Place them in a blender with the peeled garlic cloves, the juice of half a lemon, toasted pine nuts, Parmesan and olive oil. Season with a little salt and pepper. Mix until a homogeneous paste is obtained. Toast the pine nuts in a pan without adding any oil or fat.

Serve

Drain the pasta, mix them with the pesto, adding more or less pesto according to your taste. Add the pasta water to allow the pesto to stick better to the pasta. Mix well. Pour into the plates, add a few toasted pine nuts and grated Parmesan. Add a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, a little salt and pepper.