Spinach Pesto Pasta with Caprese Skewers

On Monday I posted a recipe for homemade Spinach Pesto, so easy and nutritious and ready in just five minutes. So today I thought I’d share a recipe about how I used that pesto to create a quick and tasty family meal.

Pesto Pasta is definitely one of my favourite go-to dinners. If I’ve had a manic day and only have a few minutes to prepare dinner, or if the baby is being particularly clingy and I’m need to make dinner one-handed, then I automatically grab for the dried pasta and jar of pesto! Although it is perfect as a quick meal on it’s own, this time I’ve jazzed it up with some Caprese Skewers.

Made with baby plum tomatoes, mini mozzarella balls and basil, these Caprese Skewers can be prepared earlier in the day and kept in the fridge to save some time later on. If you can’t find mini mozzarella balls you can tear pieces from a large mozzarella ball and mould them onto the sticks.

In my house, everything is better when served on a stick and these skewers definitely captured my fussy eater’s attention more than if I just made a normal caprese salad. I am really learning a lot about the visual appearance of food to children and how much it can affect their opinions of meals and consequently how much and the variety of food they will eat.

And it’s not just little fussy eaters that like nice presentation. I notice it makes a difference with grown up fussy eaters too!!

Do you have any tricks for making food more appealing to children? I’d love to hear your tips.

Spinach Pesto Pasta with Caprese Skewers

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★★★★★ 5 from 1 reviews

• Prep Time: 10 mins
• Cook Time: 12 mins
• Total Time: 22 minutes
• Yield: 4 1x

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Description

Caprese skewers made with baby plum tomatoes, mozzarella balls and basil on a bed of spinach pesto pasta

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Ingredients

• 300g dried spaghetti (or any pasta)
• 1 jar homemade spinach pesto
• 125g mini mozzarella balls
• 25 baby plum tomatoes
• 10 basil leaves
• balsamic glaze to garnish

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Instructions

1. Cook the pasta according to the packet instructions. Once cooked, drain and immediately add the pesto and stir until combined. There is no need to return the pan to the hob as the heat of the cooked pasta will warm the pesto.
2. Make the caprese skewers by threading the mozzarella balls, tomatoes and basil onto wooden sticks. These can be made ahead of time and kept in the fridge. Garnish with balsamic glaze just before you serve.