Pasta with Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto and Mozzarella Pearls
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Quick, simple and family-approved — this pasta with sun-dried tomato pesto and fresh mozzarella pearls is delicious hot or cold.
Quick, simple, and family-approved, this pasta with sun-dried tomato pesto and fresh mozzarella pearls is perfect for a weeknight supper and can double as a vibrant pasta salad for a cookout. Pair it with a simple arugula salad and warm, crusty bread. For a heartier meal, grill some Italian sausages to serve alongside. The pesto makes enough for two dinners and freezes beautifully, too.
“The sun-dried tomato pesto was absolutely delicious! Hubby and I both went back for seconds and hubby is still talking about it the morning after.”
What You’ll Need To Make Pasta With Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto
Step-by-Step Instructions
To begin, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. (Add enough salt so that the water tastes like the sea.) Cook the pasta according to the package instructions until al dente. You’ll need to reserve some of the cooking water for the sauce. It’s easy to forget to do this, so I always set a liquid measuring cup out as a visual reminder.
Meanwhile, make the pesto. In the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade, combine the sun-dried tomatoes with their oil, garlic, salt, red pepper flakes, sugar, basil, pine nuts, Parmigiano-Reggiano and olive oil.
Pulse, scraping down the sides as necessary, until the mixture is finely puréed. Divide the mixture in half. Set aside.
Reserve about 1 cup of the pasta cooking water (you’ll need it for the sauce), then drain the pasta.
Add the pasta back to the pan. Add half of the pesto and stir to combine, adding the reserved pasta water little by little, until the pasta is well-coated and moistened. I usually use about 3/4 cup of the pasta water, but you may need more or less. (Refrigerate or freeze the remaining pesto for another meal.)
Taste and adjust seasoning with more salt and red pepper flakes, if necessary. Right before serving, toss in 2 tablespoons chopped basil and the mozzarella pearls (it’s important to do this right before serving so the cheese doesn’t melt from the heat of the pan).
Transfer to a serving dish or pasta bowls and serve with more grated Parmigiano-Reggiano.
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Pasta with Sun-Dried Tomatoes & Mozzarella Pearls
Quick, simple and family-approved — this pasta with sun-dried tomato pesto and fresh mozzarella pearls is delicious hot or cold.
Ingredients
- 12 oz pasta, such as fusilli, penne or farfalle
- 1 (8.5-ounce) jar sun-dried tomatoes packed in olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic
- ½ teaspoon salt, plus more for the pasta water
- ¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- ½ teaspoon sugar
- 1 cup packed fresh basil leaves, plus more for serving
- ¼ cup + 2 tablespoons pine nuts
- ½ cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, plus more for serving
- ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 (8 oz) tub fresh mozzarella pearls, drained (alternatively, use a fresh mozzarella ball and cut into chunks)
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. (Add enough salt so that the water tastes like the sea.) Cook the pasta according to the package instructions until al dente.
- Meanwhile, make the pesto. In the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade, combine the sun-dried tomatoes with their oil, garlic, salt, red pepper flakes, sugar, basil, pine nuts, Parmigiano-Reggiano and olive oil. Pulse, scraping down the sides as necessary, until the mixture is finely puréed. Divide the mixture in half. Set aside.
- Reserve about 1 cup of the pasta cooking water (you'll need it for the sauce), then drain the pasta. Add the pasta back to the pan. Add half of the pesto and stir to combine, adding the reserved pasta water little by little, until the pasta is well-coated and moistened. I usually use about ¾ cup of pasta water. (Refrigerate or freeze the remaining pesto for another meal.) Taste and adjust seasoning with more salt and red pepper flakes, if necessary. Right before serving, toss in 2 tablespoons chopped basil and the mozzarella pearls (it's important to do this right before serving so the cheese doesn't melt from the heat of the pan). Transfer to a serving dish or pasta bowls and serve with more grated Parmigiano-Reggiano.
- Note: If you'd like to serve this pasta dish at room temperature, wait until the pasta is cool to add the mozzarella pearls.
Pair with
Nutrition Information
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- Per serving (4 servings)
- Calories: 697
- Fat: 28 g
- Saturated fat: 10 g
- Carbohydrates: 83 g
- Sugar: 15 g
- Fiber: 7 g
- Protein: 31 g
- Sodium: 533 mg
- Cholesterol: 50 mg
This website is written and produced for informational purposes only. I am not a certified nutritionist and the nutritional data on this site has not been evaluated or approved by a nutritionist or the Food and Drug Administration. Nutritional information is offered as a courtesy and should not be construed as a guarantee. The data is calculated through an online nutritional calculator, Edamam.com. Although I do my best to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures should be considered estimates only. Varying factors such as product types or brands purchased, natural fluctuations in fresh produce, and the way ingredients are processed change the effective nutritional information in any given recipe. Furthermore, different online calculators provide different results depending on their own nutrition fact sources and algorithms. To obtain the most accurate nutritional information in a given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe, using your preferred nutrition calculator.
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Is this recipe in your cookbook? my aunt made it for us the other day, and it was absolutely spectacular!
Glad you enjoyed it, Jessica! This one is not in my cookbook but my Spaghetti with Kale and Walnut Pesto is. 😊
I’m curious to know if it could be possible to make this pesto with an immersion hand blender?
Unfortunately, I don’t think an immersion blender will work here; I don’t think it would be able to get through the sun-dried tomatoes and basil without getting stuck in the blades. Sorry!
Made this for dinner last night and the sundried tomato pesto was absolutely delicious! Hubby and I both went back for seconds and hubby is still talking about it the morning after. The mozzarella pearls I bought from Whole Foods were quite large, so I halved/quartered them… which could cut down on the ‘rubbery’ consistency some other reviewers experienced. Served with a simple side salad. This is probably the 5th recipe I’ve made from this site and loving all of them – thanks Jenn!
My friend says he only likes his pasta with pesto. Weird, right?! After so many times making him a basil pesto, I tried this sun-dried tomato one. He LOVED it! Thank you.
Love this recipe! It is very easy to make. I altered the recipe and added more pesto, which I thought gave it more flavor.
Hi Jenn: I have two questions due to a dietary restriction.
Would the cooking water from gluten free pasta work to add to the pesto?
Would we use this pesto to make a shrimp dish without the pasta? In this case, there wouldn’t be pasta water either. Would something else need to be substituted?
Leslie
Hi Leslie, I wasn’t 100% sure about either of your questions, so researched it and found that the cooking water from gluten-free pasta may not be quite starchy enough for what you need here and that if you want to make a shrimp dish with no pasta a great replacement (in both cases) is water mixed with cornstarch! You can get some more details about it here. Hope that helps!
Thank you, Jenn. I really appreciate your help.
No thanks. The flavor was so strong. I was so excited to be able to use the basil I grew. But this was just a bit too much.
Great recipe! I was looking for a new pasta recipe, and this one will definitely be made again, minus the mozzarella pearls. I never met a cheese I didn’t love till I tasted mozzarella pearls. They actually took away from the amazing pesto, so I just pushed them aside and ate the pasta. My husband, on the other hand, loved them.
You replied in one of the reviews that leftover pasta can be re-heated with pesto and a bit of water or olive oil. If I made the pasta ahead the day before can I reheat before serving the same way? I would be making a double recipe.
Yes, Jo, I’d reheat it that same way. If you plan to wait until the second day to eat it, I’d add the mozzarella after you reheat it.
I can’t find Mozzarella pearls, can it be substituted by Bocconcini pearls? Do they have the same taste? Thanks
Sure, Cel, I believe they’re pretty interchangeable. Hope you enjoy!
I’ve been looking for a good pasta recipe for awhile now (ever since we got tired of canned/jarred pasta sauce) and this was delicious! It was also so so so easy. I much prefer to bake and am not much of a cook, but for the 2nd time in 9 years, my husband said something I made was “delicious” and, for the 1st time(!), that he’d like me to make it again.
I will definitely make this again. There were a few edits because I either couldn’t find an ingredient or my husband doesn’t really like cheese – I used a jar of sun-dried tomatoes with pine nuts (which was helpful bc I couldn’t find pine nuts in my grocery store), couldn’t find fresh basil so used some slightly dehydrated basil in the produce area, cut the parmesan in the pesto in half, and omitted the mozzarella pearls. It was still so delicious and so easy! Thank you for such a great and easy recipe!