
Well what better to do during your corona virus quarantine than make fresh pasta. I’m actually a big fan of making fresh pasta and have a few popular recipes on the site already. Things like my ricotta ravioli in walnut sauce is one of my go to dishes when having guests over. This time I just decided to make some standard fettuccine, but turned it into a yellow pesto fettuccine with some homemade yellow pesto.
While it is not a traditional Genovese pesto, or a Sicilian red pesto like I used in my red pesto potatoes and a few other dishes, it is still a great pasta sauce. This one I made with yellow bell peppers, walnuts, and ricotta cheese. The result was a creamy, tangy, fresh yellow pesto pasta that I will most likely be making again.

To make the yellow pesto sauce I just blitzed a yellow bell pepper, a half cup of walnuts, and about 100 grams of ricotta cheese until smooth. It wasn’t as bright yellow as I would have liked it, but I think that’s because I used hard walnuts instead of young walnuts. The taste was good though so that’s the important part with this meal.

While I made fresh fettuccine for this recipe, you can absolutely use store-bought. In fact, I actually like store bought pasta most of the time, I was just in the mood for making homemade pasta. If I do the recipe again (likely) then I’ll probably just use store bought noodles. It is less mess and I don’t have to take out my pasta roller/slicer.
The pasta only takes a couple minutes to boil, so I start on the other stuff before even boiling the pasta. First saute some thinly sliced yellow bell pepper until slightly charred. I also char some split cherry tomatoes. I find this brings out the acidity of the tomato and gives it some color. It pairs well with the yellow pesto fettuccine.

While I didn’t add any cheese to the pasta after I plated it, you can absolutely add some parmigiano reggiano or pecorino romano. I’m sure it would be delicious. I just didn’t have any on hand so didn’t put it as a part of this recipe.


Yellow Pesto Fettuccine
Equipment
- Pot
- Pan
- Blender (optional)
Ingredients
- 2 Bell Pepper yellow. 1 thinly sliced
- 1/2 cup Walnuts
- 100 grams Ricotta
- 100 grams Cherry Tomatoes cut in half
- 300 grams Fettuccine homemade or store bought
- 1 tsp Salt plus more to taste, and for salting the pasta water
- 1 tsp Black Pepper freshly cracked
- 4 tbsp Olive Oil
- 1 tbsp Parsley garnish, optional
Instructions
- In a blender (or mortar and pestle) blitz one bell pepper with the walnuts and ricotta. Add in a tsp of salt and pepper and two tablespoons of olive oil and blitz again. Scoop into a bowl and set aside.
- Add a tbsp of olive oil to a pan on medium heat and add the thinly sliced bell pepper. Saute for a few minutes until the bell pepper gets slightly charred. Remove and set aside.
- Add another tbsp of olive oil and place the cherry tomatoes cut side down. Don't move them for two to three minutes, then use a spatula to scrape them up. Add them to the bell peppers. Begin boiling your heavily salted water.
- On low heat add the yellow pesto to the pan. Stir it around and let it get warm. When the water is boiling add the pasta and cook for 3 minutes (fresh) or 7-10 minutes (depending on the package instruction for al dente, dry).
- When the pasta is just about done spoon over a few tablespoons of pasta water to the pesto and mix it together. Then drain the pasta and add all the fettuccine to the pasta. Give everything a good mix, add the sauteed vegetables, toss, plate, and serve.
Notes
