pesto pasta potato primavera

carbs on carbs! a celebration of SPRING! and all the beautiful green vegetables! Equal parts potato salad + pasta salad... the best of both worlds.

Really ticking off a lot of entry into spring and summer pre-game favorites here with this one. Just like any normal food-loving-cooking human, I love a classic potato salad recipe to have as a go-to for pot lucks or hosting at home, and I also love a tasty pasta salad recipe to go to as well. Separately, they are each wonderful in their own simple pleasure sort of way, but combined, along with a fairly equal ratio of vegetables and an abundance of cheese, then you have what I like to think of as an ultimate weekend spring lunch or dinner dish, that would be warmly welcomed as a potluck party favor as well.

The thing is, both potatoes and green beans are actually the most classic and traditional ingredients that are added to a Genovese-style pesto pasta. And, when I have a pesto craving, I usually prepare the pasta in this way. The potatoes are typically peeled and chopped extra fine (I like to cut mine into meticulously uniform cubes), same with the green beans, so each bite has the contrast of texture of two carbs and a green. As a bonus, the potato really absorbs the pesto, which I believe is the real reason the potato exists here in one of the most perfectly simple, wonderful classic pasta dishes.

So with that inspiration in mind, and a craving for a very spring-forward pasta “salad”, while thinking of primavera, but also pesto (because I had some of the leftover ricotta pesto from the last recipe I shared here). Then, why not just make all those wonderful things into one heavenly dish. Here in this version, the potatoes are much more present in a much more abundant and haphazard way. So much so that they are prepared in the way I would for a potato salad, just gently smashed by hand and broken into smaller pieces. Add in the gorgeous tender greens, and cheese, lemon juice, black pepper, more cheese, more pepper, more lemon, maybe even some mozzarella or burrata thrown in there. And with that, this began to feel like something more, both a pasta salad AND a potato salad, one that had ultimate potluck pasta salad vibes.

Lunchtime hosting / potluck / day and nighttime BBQ season is upon us, and this certainly feels like a really good way to kick it off and celebrate. Even if you make it for just yourself and fantasize about all the spring and summer outdoor eating that is to come.

pesto pasta potato primavera

SERVES about 4-6 for lunch