Creamy Collard Pesto with Pasta and Mushrooms

Made with collards, pecans, and kalamata olives, this zippy pesto dresses up pasta and sandwiches alike.
- Ingredients
- step-by-step directions
Creamy Collard Pesto with Pasta and Mushrooms
- For the Pesto:
- Kosher salt and freshly ground Black Pepper
- 1 Bunch Collards (ribs discarded and leaves roughly chopped)
- 3/4 cup Pecans
- 3 Garlic cloves
- 6 ounces Parmesan Cheese (1 ounce grated; 5 ounces broken into chunks)
- 1/2 cup Kalamata Olives (pitted)
- Olive Oil
- For the Pasta:
- 2 tablespoons Olive Oil
- 8 ounces Wild Mushrooms (lightly chopped)
- Kosher Salt
- 13 ounces Linguini Pasta (cooked al dente according to package directions)
- For the Pesto: Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Blanch the collards until they're bright green, about 1 minute. Remove, shake off excess water, and transfer to a food processor.
- In a dry skillet, toast the pecans until fragrant. Chop and set aside half. Transfer the other half of the pecans to the food processor with garlic, the 5 ounces of chunked Parmesan, and all the olives. Pulse to combine and then, with the food processor on, drizzle olive oil in a slow stream until the pesto comes together. Taste and add salt only if needed (the olives and cheese often do the trick). Add a few grinds of black pepper to taste.
- For the Pasta: Heat the olive oil in a large straight-sided pan over medium heat. When it begins to swirl, add the mushrooms and a pinch of salt and cook, stirring, until the mushrooms are wilted, about 8 minutes.
- Add the pesto and pasta to the pan and stir to coat. Serve with the reserved chopped pecans as garnish.
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