Conchiglioni with Pesto, Asparagus, Bacon (Giant Pasta)

Making home made pesto is a regular occurrence in my house and today I put making pesto in the Vitamix to the test.

Aaah English asparagus season is just about still with us and I’m enjoying a couple of bundles each week whilst it lasts.

This quickly assembled pasta dish is given greater gravitas with the inclusion of these gigantic pasta shells – conchiglioni to give them their technical term – which look like ones from Carluccio’s but were in fact by Tesco Finest range.

Conchiglioni seem so much grander and bountiful than ordinary conchiglie pasta shells. I’ve fed them to dinner guests whereas I’d probably not serve up their smaller relatives.

Now I know pasta is possibly the ultimate convenience food and yes you can boil it in 10 minutes so yes of course you can get it on the table in 30 minutes. BUT – I don’t want to see any short cut bottled sauces nor ragus requiring aeons of bubbling away.

I have published a rocket and walnut pesto recipe before on Dinner With Crayons but today’s version was made in the Vitamix.

The Vitamix pesto ingredients were:

• 75g parmesan cheese cut into chunks
• 2 handles of Greek basil (or normal, Greek just happened to be what I had)
• 1 handful of rocket leaves (poking out slightly here)
• 50g walnut pieces
• 2 cloves garlic (or in my case a squeeze of lazy stuff)
• 75ml (ish) olive oil – add whatever you need for consistency you like.

And this is what you get after a minute or so using the Vitamix puree program. Lush Kermit coloured paste.

Whilst the pasta was boiling I chopped up the asparagus (after removing woody stems) and snipped up bacon with kitchen scissors.

Fry the asparagus for a few minutes in olive oil.

Then add the bacon and fry for a few minutes until cooked.

Drain the cooked pasta and toss in the pesto, asparagus and bacon. Shave over some more parmesan and serve!

I am currently roadtesting a machine supplied with the compliments of Vitamix.