Pea Pesto Pasta
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This pea pesto pasta is part of my 5 Lunches for £5 series, and it might be one of my favourites! We’re using frozen peas in two ways: roasted alongside crispy cooking bacon and blended into the most vibrant, nutty pesto sauce, all for about £1 a portion. If you’re a fan of budget-friendly pasta meal prep like my Tuna Pesto Pasta, this one needs to go on your list.
Recipe Summary: Pea Pesto Pasta
- ✅ Recipe Name: Pea Pesto Pasta
- 🕦 Ready in: 30 minutes
- 🤝 Serves: 5
- 🍴 Calories: 666 kcal
- 🧑🍳 Main ingredients: cooking bacon, frozen peas, mixed nuts
- ✨ Summary: This bacon and pea pesto pasta gives you 5 packed lunches for under £5. A creamy, dairy-free pea pesto with crispy roasted bacon and farfalle. Easy meal prep sorted.
Why you’ll love this recipe
5 lunches for £5: This pea pesto pasta works out at around £1 per portion using cooking bacon and frozen peas. Budget meal prep doesn’t get much better.
Dairy-free pesto: No parmesan here! Mixed nuts blended with basil, lemon and olive oil make a creamy, punchy pesto that genuinely holds its own. My budget hack here was to choose a snack serving of nuts rather than buying a whole bag, hence the variety of nuts!
Frozen peas two ways: Most of the peas roast in the oven alongside the bacon for a slightly caramelised, savoury bite. The rest get blended into the sauce.
Minimal faff: The oven does the heavy lifting. While the bacon and peas roast, you make the pesto and cook the pasta. It all comes together at the same time.
Try these other meal prep pastas this week: Easy Red Pesto Pasta, Pesto Pasta Salad, Broccoli Pesto Orzo.
Table of Contents
Ingredients For Pea Pesto Pasta
The three ingredients that make this recipe work so well:
Cooking bacon The unsung hero of budget cooking. Cooking bacon is the off-cut version of regular bacon and costs a fraction of the price, but once it’s roasted in the oven it goes beautifully crispy and salty. Perfect for this.
Frozen peas We use 900g in total, 700g roasted with the bacon and 200g blended into the pesto. Frozen peas are sweet, cheap and a genuine freezer staple. They’re the reason this sauce has that vibrant green colour.
Mixed nuts These replace the pine nuts you’d find in a traditional pesto and work brilliantly. They add a creamy, slightly earthy richness to the sauce and cost far less than pine nuts. Toast them first for extra depth of flavour.
See the recipe card for full information on all ingredients and quantities.
Variations/ Adaptations
- Swap the protein: Not a bacon fan? Roasted chorizo, crispy pancetta or even leftover shredded chicken all work really well here. For a veggie version, roast some cherry tomatoes and courgette instead, similar to what I do in my Pasta with Peas (Pasta e Piselli).
- Add parmesan: The pesto is dairy-free as written, but if you want extra richness and umami, stir a handful of grated parmesan through the pasta at the end. It takes it to another level.
- Change the pasta shape: Farfalle is great here because the sauce tucks into the folds, but fusilli, rigatoni or penne all work just as well. Use whatever you’ve got.
How to make Pea Pesto Pasta
Step 1: Place bacon and frozen peas on a baking tray and roast for 30 minutes.
Step 2: Toast the nuts in a frying pan.
Step 3: Blitz the pesto ingredients, combining the blanched peas.
Step 4: Cook the pasta in heavily salted boiling water.
Step 5: Combine the pasta, pesto and starchy pasta water. Then stir through the crispy bacon and peas.
Step 6: Divide into meal prep containers and top with the reserved crispy bacon & peas.
Tips for the best result
- Toast the nuts before blending; it only takes 3 minutes in a dry pan, but it makes the pesto noticeably nuttier and more flavourful.
- Reserve a big mug of pasta water before draining. The starchy water brings it all together.
- Don’t over-blend the pesto. A couple of pulses gives you a chunky, textured sauce with real body. Blend it too long and you lose that lovely vibrant green colour.
- Cook your pasta 2 minutes under the packet time. It finishes cooking in the pan with the pesto and pasta water, so you won’t end up with soggy farfalle!
Leftover Storage and Reheat Instructions
Refrigerator: Divide into meal prep containers and store in the fridge for up to 4 days. The pesto thickens up overnight, so add a small splash of water before reheating.
Freezer: This pea pesto pasta freezes well for up to 2 months. Portion into individual containers before freezing so you can grab one at a time. Defrost overnight in the fridge.
Reheat: Pop in the microwave for 2 minutes with a tablespoon of water, stirring halfway through. Add a fresh squeeze of lemon and a crack of black pepper before serving.
Pea Pesto FAQs
Frozen peas are genuinely the better choice here. They’re sweeter, more consistent and far cheaper than fresh. The recipe is designed around them, so stick with frozen if you can.
Yes! The whole recipe gives you 5 portions that last up to 4 days in the fridge. The pesto actually deepens in flavour overnight, so it tastes even better on day 2.
It tastes the same; it’s just from offcuts rather than neat rashers. Once it’s roasted in the oven for 30 minutes it goes crispy and slightly caramelised. Nobody will notice the difference.
A blender works fine. You might need to add an extra splash of water to help it blend, and the texture will be smoother than with a food processor. Still totally delicious.
If you tried this Pea Pesto Pasta, it would mean so much to me if you could leave a review & a star rating to let me know how you found it! I love hearing about your experiences – it motivates me to keep creating more and more recipes for you guys 💛 Let’s get cooking! – Mimi x
Pea Pesto Pasta
Ingredients
- 900 g frozen peas
- 500 g cooking bacon
- 25 g mixed nuts
- Handful of fresh basil
- Juice of half a lemon plus wedges to serve
- 250 g farfalle
Cupboard Essentials
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- Salt
- Pepper
Method
- Preheat oven to 190°C. To a foil-lined baking tray, add 700g of the frozen peas and all of the cooking bacon evenly across the tray. Pop in the oven for 30 minutes.
- Meanwhile, toast the mixed nuts in a large frying pan for around 3 minutes over a medium heat, then transfer to your food processor/blender.
- Cover the remaining 200g of frozen peas in boiling water for the same amount of time.
- To your processor, add the olive oil, fresh basil and the juice of half a lemon. Season with salt and pepper, then pulse for a couple of bursts.
- Rinse the peas to cool them down, then add them to your food processor. Blend until you achieve a pesto consistency.
- Cook your pasta in heavily salted water, timer set to the packet time minus 2 minutes. Reserve a big mug of pasta water before draining.
- Add your pasta back into your pan with a generous splash of pasta water, stir to combine, then add your crispy bacon and peas into the pan (you can reserve some to top if you fancy)
- Divide into meal prep containers and top with lemon wedges and an extra crack of black pepper. Enjoy!
Notes
- Toast the nuts before blending. It only takes 3 minutes in a dry pan but it makes the pesto noticeably nuttier and more flavourful. Don’t skip this step.
- Reserve a big mug of pasta water before draining. The starchy water is key to getting the pesto to coat every piece of pasta rather than sitting in a puddle at the bottom of the bowl.
- Don’t over-blend the pesto. A couple of pulses gives you a chunky, textured sauce with real body. Blend it too long and you lose that lovely vibrant green colour.
Nutrition
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