Recipe

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Need the best recipe for fusilli pesto? Look no further. This 20-minute recipe comes together easily and yields the most delicious pasta bowls!

Make this fusilli with pesto once and you’ll have a winning meal everyone will rave about. Keep reading to learn all the cooking tips for perfect flavor and consistency!

Pesto Fusilli

My kids always think twice before saying yes to anything green. But when I made pesto spaghetti pasta for the first time, they loved it! So, this time, I swapped the pasta to make delicious fusilli pesto.

Pasta dinners are my go-to way to serve a nutritious meal on a budget. I keep my homemade pesto without pine nuts on hand for easy pesto recipes like this one, but of course, you can use one from the store. One way or the other, epic will be!

Why Fussili is Perfect for This Recipe

While you can use this recipe to cook any kind of pesto pasta, fusilli is so fun to eat with this sauce! The spirals trap the pesto and make this meal extra flavorful. Yummy!

Ingredients

To turn fusilli into an unforgettable dish, you only need my easy homemade pesto sauce, or your favorite jarred pesto, and Parmesan cheese for serving.

How to Make Pesto Fusilli

Once your pasta is cooked, reserve some pasta water. Then, pour the sauce into a bowl, add the cooked fusilli, and combine. Pouring the pesto sauce into the hot pot you use to cook the pasta will dry out the fusilli. Add pasta water slowly until you get the consistency you like.

Serving this Pasta Dish

When I serve this meal, I like to keep things simple and cheesy, meaning Parmesan on top is a must! Then, I add a side salad for extra nutrition and these baked cheese twists instead of breadsticks. Absolutely delish!

Fusilli with Pesto

Servings: 6

Prep Time: 5

Cook Time: 15

Total Time: 20

Need the best recipe for fusilli pesto? Look no further. This 20-minute recipe comes together easily and yields the most delicious pasta bowls!

5 from 4 votes

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Ingredients

6 ounces pesto, ¾ cup
16 ounces fusilli
1 cup pasta water, reserved
⅓ cup Parmesan cheese, for serving

Instructions

Prep:

Add the pesto sauce into a large serving or mixing bowl and set aside.

Cook the pasta:

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Once boiling, add the fusilli and boil according to the package directions. Once the pasta is ready, reserve 1 cup of pasta water.
Drain the pasta water and transfer the fusilli into the large bowl containing the pesto. The pot will be too hot and will dry the pasta.

Combine:

Pour half of the reserved pasta water into the bowl with the pesto and pasta. Use kitchen tongs to combine the sauce. Add more pasta water slowly until the pesto coats all of the noodles and you like the consistency of the sauce. I typically use between ¾ and 1 cup of water total.