Arugula-spinach pesto is vibrant, delicious, and very easy to make. It goes wonderfully with pasta, but also on salads, meats, as a dipping sauce, or as a garnish for soups. This recipe makes more pesto than you need so that you can freeze the extras!

Arugula-Spinach Pesto: a spring-y sauce

Nothing says "SPRING" like a gorgeous, vibrant dish of pasta with pesto. Since Wisconsin hasn't quite convinced itself that it's spring yet and the weather has been cold and dreary, a dish like this goes a long way to elevate my stir-crazy, generally annoyed mood.

This Arugula-Spinach Pesto with Shrimp came about because I bought one of those containers with an organic mix of spring greens (baby arugula and spinach) and...well...I always have the best intentions when I buy these salad greens: a fussy salad involving strawberries and bacon, for example. I kid. But for whatever reason, I always seem to find myself up against the "use by" date with no particular game plan for using my mixed greens. I hate wasting food, though, so, in a stroke of inspiration, I realized that arugula-spinach pesto would be a perfect way to use them up.

My usual pesto involves basil and parsley, but just about any combination of herbs or greens will do. Arugula has a slightly more aggressive, peppery flavor that is delightful when cut with a more neutral green like spinach. Pesto is, in general, a super-easy sauce that's great on pastas, salads, as a dip for breads or a garnish for soups—and on and on. The food processor does most of the work, apart from toasting the pine nuts and prepping the greens. Other than that, this meal is a simple matter of boiling some pasta and sautéeing the shrimp.

For my my arugula-spinach pesto variation, I toasted the garlic in its skin along with the pine nuts to infuse the sauce even more roasty flavor. I also threw in a pinch of pepper flake for just a hit of spice, though this is completely optional.

Arugula-Spinach Pesto with Shrimp comes together very quickly: I start boiling the water for the pasta while I'm prepping the shrimp and greens and toasting the pine nuts and garlic. I drop the pasta when I start putting the sauce together in my food processor. Then, during the last five minutes of cook time for the pasta, I start cooking the shrimp. Then it's a simple matter of draining and dressing the pasta with the gorgeous arugula-spinach pesto.

One note about arugula-spinach pesto: as I mentioned, arugula is a more aggressive flavor than parsley or spinach, the traditional herbs used for making pesto. This becomes especially true if it's not fresh: arugula tends to take on a bitter flavor as it gets older. With this in mind, reserve about half of your arugula and make your pesto like you normally would. Then taste it: make sure that the arugula flavor isn't too strong. If it's all good and could use another dose of herbiness, you can add the remaining arugula. If it tastes great the way it is, leave it alone!

I like keeping extra pesto in the freezer to pull out during the long Wisconsin winter months to remind me what spring looks like. Although it's somewhat high in calories because of the olive oil and pine nuts, it's unsaturated fat—and the sauce is loaded with veggie goodness. Arugula-spinach pesto with shrimp is a new favorite with the hubster AND kids (amazing!). I hope your family will enjoy it as much as we do.

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Related

Pesto-Shrimp Cavatappi: a bright, easy sauce with basil, parsley, garlic, pine nuts, and olive oil. Freezes well for an easy meal anytime.