1. A Simple Dinner After Working in Our Garden
After spending time in our Calgary backyard, we often want a meal that is easy to prepare.
Gardening can leave us tired, especially when we are harvesting vegetables, cleaning up garden beds, or getting ready for the colder weather. On those days, we prefer simple meals that do not require too much time in the kitchen.
One of our favorite ways to use homemade pesto is to toss it with warm pasta.
In our previous post, we shared how we made perilla leaf pesto using 40 fresh leaves from our backyard. This time, we will show how we turn that pesto into a quick and comforting pasta dish.
Traditional pesto is often made with basil, but our version uses Korean perilla leaves (깻잎, kkaennip). The leaves bring a fresh and distinctive aroma that makes the pasta a little different from a classic basil pesto dish.
We do not need many ingredients or complicated cooking steps. With warm pasta, a few spoonful of pesto, and a little pasta water, we can prepare a satisfying meal.
If you would like to see how we make and store the pesto, visit our related post:
How We Make Perilla Leaf Pesto and Store It Fresh
2. Ingredients for Our Simple Pesto Pasta
We like this recipe because it uses only a few basic ingredients.
Ingredients
Your favorite pasta, such as spaghetti or penne
2–3 large spoonfuls of homemade perilla leaf pesto
About ¼ cup of pasta water
Extra Parmesan cheese, for serving
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
The amount of pesto can be adjusted to match the amount of pasta and your personal taste.
If we want a stronger flavor, we can add a little more pesto. If the sauce is too thick, we can use warm pasta water to help create the texture we want.
We enjoy recipes that give us room to make small changes.
3. How We Make Perilla Leaf Pesto Pasta
Step 1: Cook the Pasta
We bring a pot of salted water to a boil.
Then, we add our favorite pasta and cook it according to the package directions.
We aim for al dente pasta. This means the pasta is cooked but still has a little firmness when we bite it.
Before draining the pasta, we save about ¼ cup of the warm cooking water.
We do not throw this water away right away because it can help us adjust the consistency of the pesto sauce.
The starch in the pasta water can help the sauce coat the pasta more smoothly.
Step 2: Add the Homemade Pesto
We transfer the warm pasta into a large mixing bowl.
Next, we add 2–3 large spoonfuls of our homemade perilla pesto.
We pour in a small splash of the warm pasta water and gently toss everything together.
We prefer to add the water little by little. This makes it easier to control the thickness of the sauce.
If the pesto feels too thick, we add a little more water. If it becomes too thin, we can add a little more pesto.
We keep mixing until the green sauce coats the pasta.
4. Finish and Serve Our Pasta
Once the pasta is evenly coated, we finish it with extra Parmesan cheese and freshly ground black pepper.
We serve it while the pasta is still warm.
The perilla leaves add a fresh herbal aroma, while the walnuts bring a nutty flavor. Parmesan cheese adds a savory taste that brings the ingredients together.
We enjoy how a simple bowl of pasta can taste different when we use pesto made from our own garden harvest.
It is not a complicated recipe, but it is the kind of meal we like after a busy day outside.
5. Why We Enjoy This Garden-to-Table Meal
One of the best parts of gardening is finding ways to enjoy what we grow.
We usually use perilla leaves in Korean dishes. Making pesto gave us a chance to try a different style of cooking with a familiar ingredient.
This pasta is also flexible. We can use different pasta shapes and adjust the amount of pesto to suit our taste.
When we have leftover pesto in the freezer, small portions make it easier to prepare a quick meal.
We enjoy this kind of cooking because it connects our garden work with our everyday life at home.
Growing food in Calgary is not always easy. The short season and changing weather remind us to appreciate the harvest while we have it.
If you enjoy learning about our garden, visit our Calgary Garden Guides .
For more Korean-inspired home cooking, explore our Korean Food Recipes .
6. Our Simple Cooking Tip
We have learned that pasta water can be useful when making pesto pasta.
Instead of adding a large amount of water at once, we start with a small splash. Then, we adjust the sauce until it coats the pasta the way we like.
We also prefer to mix the pesto with warm pasta rather than cooking the pesto over high heat for a long time.
This helps us keep the preparation simple and allows us to enjoy the fresh aroma of our homemade sauce.
The most important part is to taste the food and make small adjustments. Every batch of pesto may have a slightly different texture or flavor.
7. Final Thoughts
Our perilla leaf pesto pasta is a simple meal made with a little creativity and fresh ingredients.
We used pesto made from 40 leaves harvested from our Calgary backyard. By combining it with warm pasta, Parmesan cheese, and black pepper, we created a quick dinner that our family could enjoy.
We love finding new ways to use our garden harvest. Sometimes, a familiar ingredient can become something completely different with a small change in the recipe.
For us, this is what garden-to-table cooking is about. We grow, harvest, prepare, and share food at home.
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