Featured comment
Made this and have been eating it all week. It’s SO good! Love that there’s plenty of pesto so it’s nice and saucy.
I have this thing called green foodsession and it’s not going away.
Last month when Bjork was putting together the income report, I accused him of choosing all green photos for the cover image. People don’t want to see all that green on there, babe. This is starting to look like the Grass Eaters club or something. Except then he pointed out that he had no other choice because all my recipes from last month are, in fact, green. Touche.
I accept that this is my current food calling. Green, delicious, fresh, healthy foods made into tasty, saucy food? This is the hill I will die on.
How To Make Our Baked Pesto Rigatoni:
But let’s follow up that bold statement with some red and yellow. Because I love tomatoes too.
My food processor is my most used kitchen appliance by ten hundred miles. I try to force myself not to use it in some recipes because sometimes I worry that the homemade sauce and textured food thing is overkill for you foodie friends. But you guys. This little machine (mine is a tiny little 2 cup off-brand machine that’s missing one of the grippers on the left back corner so it slips around on the counter every time I use it – fun) is a force to be reckoned with. Anything that can take masses of green vegetables and turn them into something that has me licking my fingers like yes yes yes moooore is a good tool.
I mean, we all like green vegetables, right? We just like them better when they’re sausay.
Another thing we like: noodles.
I’m carb-loading for tomorrow when I’m going to need the energy to make this again. Gettin’ carby smart, yo.
So let me tell you a little bit about this healthy baked pesto rigatoni.
First, the healthy pesto is the green part involving the food processor. It’s a creamy concoction of Parmesan, pine nuts (or almonds because maybe you don’t like spending 200 dollars on nuts? I dunno), olive oil, garlic, spinach, kale, basil, and a little lemon juice that will seriously call for a mini-spatula-straight-into-mouth pesto cleanout of all the crevices of your food processor. You can judge or you can be a real person who likes flavor bomb pesto that packs a nutritional one-two punch. Up to you.
The pesto gets tossed up with that pasta and saucified with a little water, freshified with some little heirloom tomatoes, and yummified with a little cheese. I am so annoyed at myself right now.
You bake it, you eat it, you love the leftovers even more.
Friends? I hope you enjoyed this installment of Pinch of Yum Green Foods and I hope you enjoy it even more when it’s in a big bowl on your dinner table tonight. Topped with a little extra Parmesan, because that’s what we’d do if we were eating dinner together, I’m 900% sure.
Healthy Pesto Baked Rigatoni
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 8–10 1x
Description
This Healthy Baked Pesto Rigatoni is tossed with heirloom tomatoes and a saucy spinach pesto that will knock your socks off.
Ingredients
For the pasta:
- 1 lb. whole wheat rigatoni
- 2–3 cups chopped heirloom tomatoes
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/2 cup shredded cheese of choice (I used Asiago)
- pesto (recipe follows)
For the pesto:
- 2 cups spinach
- 1 cup kale
- 1 cup basil
- 3/4 cup almonds or pine nuts
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 1/4 cup Parmesan or Asiago cheese
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3 large cloves garlic
- juice of 1 lemon (optional)
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of water to boil. While the water is boiling, chop up the tomatoes – I just cut the little ones in half. Add the pasta to the water and cook according to package directions.
- While the pasta is cooking, place all the pesto ingredients in the food processor until smooth. You may have to push the spinach down periodically to get everything moving. I had to do this in two batches because my food processor is very small. You should end up with 2 heaping cups of pesto.
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Toss the cooked noodles with the chopped tomatoes, pesto, and enough water to make it a little saucy. Transfer to a 9×13 baking dish and sprinkle with the cheese. Cover loosely with well-oiled aluminum foil and bake for 10-15 minutes or until the cheese is melted.
Notes
Nutrition is for 10 servings.
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 25 mins
- Category: Dinner
- Cuisine: Italian
Keywords: pesto rigatoni, pesto recipe, whole wheat pasta recipe, healthy pasta recipe
Made this. Didn’t have basil but I still ate it until I couldn’t eat anymore it was that good. Also added mushrooms and they absorbed the pesto flavor really well. I will make this again
Read rigatoni, acknowledged rigatoni, bought rotini. Lol. Will it still work?
LOL! Yes, things should turn out still.
This has been our family’s favorite pasta for a few years now (along with your date night mushroom and goat cheese pasta!). We add 8 oz sauteed mushrooms along with the tomatoes. So so so delicious!
This recipe came together easily and turned out so well! Amazing flavor, can’t wait to make again.
Ok need help here, how do you measure “cups” of vegetables?? Like, what is a cup of basil? 8 oz? Or am I packing basil into a measuring cup until I get 1 cup? Wish these ingredients were by weight 🙁
We loosely pack the basil in the measuring cup. Thanks for the feedback!
This looks amazing! But I don’t understand how one pound of pasta serves 10 people, haha… so my guess is the calories are actually much higher than what’s listed, right?
Yep, calories would be higher if you reduce the number of servings!
Yum! We made this recipe with a mixture of veggie and chickpea pastas to try and make it even healthier. It turned out great and was super easy to throw together on a weekday. Thanks for this recipe! We’ll be making this again.
Is this freezeable? I love the recipe but need freezer meals for my husband that works different shifts!
We haven’t tried freezing this meal, but we think it could work! We’d love to hear back if you give it a try!
Okay this may be a dumb question (I know we always hear there’s no such thing, but there definitely is, right?), but how does one measure leafy greens and herbs in cups? Should I pack it in there and smash it down? Drop it in leaf by leaf until it fills the measuring cup? Basically I need to know how much basil to get when it’s sold by the ounce and doesn’t have a handy “approximately __ cups” addendum on the packaging. Help!
Also, I DO realize this recipe is from 6.5 years ago, but it looks absolutely amazing and I need to make it ASAP! Soooooo I’m hoping you still get notified when someone comments! 🤞🏼
Hi Catherine! Great question! I don’t know if there is a universal rule for measuring leafy greens and herbs by the cup. When I measure, I tend to loosely pack it in. I don’t smash it down. I usually have some leaves sprouting out the top of the measuring cup. We hope you enjoy the recipe!
Nice recipe. Thanks for sharing.
I wonder how well it would turn out with arugula? It does have a nutty flavor that would go well with pine nuts.
Arugula would be a great substitute in this pesto!
Delicious!! I roasted the tomatoes before tossing them in and added a big handful of pine nuts. It’s December and this feels like a bite of summer! It also fits the season with its vibrant red and green color!
It’s totally a festive recipe! So glad you enjoyed it!
I would give this recipe a 9 star rating if I could. Has been in our Meatless Monday rotation, when I cook 12 servings of vegetarian fare for 3 families, for 3 years. Always a hit. I added ricotta, asparagus, frozen peas and shredded zucchini (squeezed out well). Awesome recipe!
The best I’ve ever eaten!
So happy to hear this, Maggie!
Can I use jarred basil pesto
Sure!
When it occurs to you while you’re eating it that you only used 1/4 cup of oil it makes all the sense it the world….. attempt 2 where I actually followed the directions was a crowd pleaser!
As I was making this I thought, this is going to be so boring. But holy smokes! It was delicious!! I used walnuts as my less expensive pesto nut. So good and so easy!!
Glad you enjoyed this, Emily!
This looks amazing!! I love broccoli with pesto and would love to add that in with the tomatoes. Would I put them in raw and bake in the casserole? Thank you!!!
Sounds yummy! Yep, we’d probably put it in raw and bake it with the casserole.
Is this recipe freezer-friendly?:)
The pesto can probably be frozen, but we don’t know if we’d freeze the rigatoni dish.
Could this be made ahead (minus the baking) and frozen for meal prepping? Trying to get better with that
Hi, Alan! We haven’t tried freezing this and aren’t sure how it’d turn out. You could freeze large batches of the pesto to have on hand though.
Hey, i’ve made this before and it was absolutely delicious. Do you the pre-baked casserole dish would freeze well? Need to make some freezer meals before my baby girl arrives 🙂
What if I can’t find fresh basil??
I love me some regular pesto but THIS recipe is so much better! I used parmesan cheese in both the pesto and mixed in with the pasta. Amazing!!!!!
Can I do Steps 1 and 2 and leave in fridge for a couple of days and then do step 3 xmas morning? Looking for do-ahead, easy and inexpensive but powerful punch dish for my vegetarian guests.
Definitely! Should work just fine.
Could you freeze this before baking? If so, how long would you cook it? If not could you refrigerate it over night and bake it in the next day?
Hi,
My son (10 years old) made this as part of his JASS project at school and took it for his school lunch. Some of his school friends now want to try to make it. Also, have tried pesto with him before, this is the first one he likes, I think because he made it himself. Thank you!
LOVE that. Thanks for the comment, Sara!