Yesterday my friend Steph sent a link for this Avocado Pasta Sauce. At first my brain was confused. Isn’t this just pasta tossed in guacamole? But then my stomach took over: avocado on or in anything is sumptuous. This will definitely work.
I wanted to make the dish a little heartier and kick up the flavorful, so I added the broccoli rabe and pine nuts for color, texture, and substance. I knew it would be good, but it’s so much better than I ever imagined. This sauce is creamy and rich – like a pesto. And it’s vegan too!
This is just the start of avocado as a pasta sauce for me. I’m already thinking of what else I could do. Sub in bite-sized pasta, and it would make a great side dish. Depending on the season change the vegetables. Enough! This is not the last time you’ll see avocado sauce on Three Many Cooks!
- Salt
- 12 ounces linguini
- 1 bunch broccoli rabe (about 1 pound), trimmed and coarsely chopped
- 3 large garlic cloves
- ¼ cup juice from a large lemon
- 2 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 avocados halved and pitted
- ½ packed cup fresh basil leaves
- ¼ cup toasted pine nuts
- Grated Parmesan cheese (optional)
- Bring 2 quarts water and a tablespoon of salt to a boil in Dutch oven or soup kettle. Add pasta and, using back-of-the-box times as a guide, cook partially covered and stirring frequently at first, to prevent sticking, until just tender. Add broccoli rabe to the boiling pasta the last 5 or so minutes of cooking. Drain and return to pot, reserving 1 cup of pasta water.
- Meanwhile, make sauce by mincing garlic cloves in a food processor. Add lemon juice and olive oil, process until smooth. Add avocado, basil, and a generous sprinkling of salt; process until smooth.
- Add sauce, and half of pine nuts to the pasta, along with enough pasta cooking liquid to create a light creamy sauce. Serve, sprinkling with remaining pine nuts and Parmesan cheese, if desired.
That sounds so good! And it is always nice to find something unique and much healthier than a traditional cream sauce.
Can’t wait to try this out!
I had heard of pasta with avocado sauce before but I have not tried it yet. I think just convinced me!
Uuuuuuh, YES. Doing this.
I gave avocado pasta sauce a go last week and mine was nowhere as lovely as yours. Looked perfect in the processor but a hot gloppy mess in the pot.
Seemed like mine needed some of the cooking water blitzed in with the avocado. Or maybe my avocado wasn’t ripe enough. Ok, you say it is possible to get a luscious sauce out of it so I’m game to give it another try.
As a girl who has to eat avocado everyday to survive, I can’t believe this isn’t part of my life yet.
I can’t wait to try this one. My 2 year old is a very adventurous eater but avocado has always been one of her favorite foods. She’ll eat it plain, as guacamole, warm on a sandwich… just about any way she can. Thanks for offering a new way to give her a favorite.
PS: I really miss you in the USA Weekend magazine. Over the year many of your recipes were added to our family’s favorites list. Thank goodness for blogs! I can still discover all of your great ideas.
Wow – I will be making this recipe for dinner tomorrow!
yum! Used to love avocado sauce with pasta. Don’t know why I haven’t done this in so long; looks great with broccoli; wonder if my hubby will go for that 🙂
“Avocado with anything is sumptuous”…oh yes, we agree! We’re sharing a link to your post on our Facebook page today! Facebook/Avocados_Direct Our fans look forward to the best avocado recipes and this is one! Thank you!
Hi! We stumbled on your recipe here and we loved it! The photo looks great! Just thought we’d let you know that we shared it on our Facebook page, too.
https://www.facebook.com/AustralianAvocados
Feel free to share any other avocado recipes you have with us!
Cheers
The team at Australian Avocados 🙂
Oh, I am so intrigued! Lovely avocados are on my kitchen counter….need to hit the grocery store in the morning so I can have this for dinner! Wow!
This looks great. I can’t find Broccoli Rabe at my little market, what would you substitute for it? Thanks!
Sarah, you could use broccoli! That would definitely work. Or even asparagus or spinach, just drop it in the water like you would broccoli rabe. Hope this helps!
I can’t believe Gaby hasn’t weighed in on this one yet. OMG. TOTES OBSESSED. This looks like such a CA recipe. Got to add this to my list. Thank you for sharing this!
Tried this recipe and it was absolutely fabulous! Thanks so much for posting it.
Made this last night – very creamy, totally delicious. My daughter has food allergies ( including dairy) so its always exciting to find something with creamy texture without using a lot of “faux soy” stuff. I left out the Parmesan and pine nuts due to her allergies, but added some nutritional yeast for a little cheesy zing. It made a ton – next time I’ll make half the recipe, but what do you think my success would be with freezing it? I know you can freeze pesto but not sure how the avocado would like it.
Some say you can freeze mashed avocado but not guacamole. Others say that you can freeze guacamole. I believe that I’ve bought frozen guacamole, so I’d bet that you can. The only way to know for sure is to try. If you do, let us know how it goes.
Will do! Oh, and meant to say, I see many uses for this beyond a pasta topping, such as sandwich spread, dip, … Could it even be a pizza topping??
This looks amazing! Definitely making this!!
Fantastic recipe thanks. Made it yesterday and it went down a treat. Only addition I made was some lightly roasted pumpkin seeds sprinkled over the top. My family love these and they’re so good for them.
I’m always looking for new recipes that deal with avocados but I never really thought adding them with pasta. This recipe is a keeper, thanks for sharing.
This was delicious! I’m not a fan of pine nuts, so I left those out… but I actually added in some pinto beans. So yummy! Thanks for sharing. For more of my recipe ideas, visit my blog http://www.BetterOffHealthy.com.
We substituted asparagus tips for broccoli rabe and topped with grilled portobello caps, easy & delicious!