Fresh Pesto Pasta with Garlic Bread
29. Oct, 2009 
7 Comments
I know that the pasta up there looks a little crazy, but man did it taste good! I bought it at the Mangi Con Amore stand at the Hollywood Farmers Market in anticipation of wanting a simple weeknight meal, and that shape – Traditional Trofie – was recommended as going really well with pesto sauce. (I also got the tip to shave a little bit of walnut over the finished dish.) They have several fresh, egg-free pasta options, but I think this one has to be my favorite. It’s so chewy and yummy, and I imagine it’s perfect with whatever sauce you serve it with.
Going along with keeping it simple, we also used some pesto that we’d bought at the market from Basiltops. They have several dairy-free pesto sauces, and they’re all really good. The hardest part of this meal was making the spread for the garlic bread (and that was pretty easy too!)
A few years ago I attended a “Helping Animals 101″ weekend held by PETA. I know that PETA can be a pretty controversial organization, but one of the great things they do is put out awesome recipes. We got a packet that weekend with a bunch of recipes, one of them being for this Garlic Bread Spread, which has become my favorite. It’s so simple to throw together and it tastes so good! We’ve served it to many a dairy-eater and they always love it.
The Best Garlic Bread Spread
This makes a lot, so I usually half the recipe and keep it in the fridge.
1 tub (8 ounces) Earth Balance margarine, softened
1 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup raw garlic, minced
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon pepper
2 Tablespoons garlic powder
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1/4 cup Italian herbs (I use half oregano and half basil)
Mix all ingredients well, then chill the mixture. To serve, spread the mixture on vegan bread and toast to a golden brown.
I left the fresh garlic out of this the other night (yes, I was that lazy), and it was still amazing. You can play with the herbs, and add whatever you like best. Enjoy!
The garlic bread spread looks great!
I am going to make this for my parents’ when I go home next month. They always make garlic bread on red sauce night (aka Sundays). Thanks for posting!
Sounds like perfect comfort food.
And everything matches so well with the dish!
It looks great but a TUB of EB?
Hi, Kim! You use equal amounts of EB and olive oil – and since I half this I use 4 ounces of each. That’s just to make the spread though, you don’t actually use that much at once! It usually lasts us for a while. I probably use about a half to a full tablespoon of the mixture per slice of bread.
I just love garlic, so this sounds wonderful! I would make up a batch and just smear it on everything, forget about just plain bread.
This is the perfect meal. Just LOOK at it.