Christmas Tree Pasta

Fancy something easy for Christmas this year? Something that the kids are guaranteed to love? Well, this festive Christmas tree pasta might just be the perfect dish to whip up over the festive period!

Tagliatelle are mixed with a yummy basil pesto, arranged in the shape of a Christmas tree and decorated with cherry tomato and mozzarella ‘baubles’ and pepper stars. So pretty and sooo yummy!

A note on the pasta: I am using tagliatelle pasta from Luxembourgish brand Le Moulin.

Find the recipe here in Luxembourgish.

Ingredients

240g Le Moulin tagliatelle

1 carrot
1 mini red, yellow and red pepper
125g red and yellow cherry tomatoes
150g mini mozzarella balls
olive oil
parmesan, to serve

For the pesto:
30g almonds
20g basil
30g parmesan, grated
1 small garlic clove, crushed
75ml olive oil
salt and pepper

Method

Serves 2 – Prep: 30 mins

Preheat the oven to 180°C fan.

Peel the carrot and cut out two long, wide slices, to form the base of the Christmas tree. Cut the remaining carrot into bite-sized slices and put into a baking dish. Cut open the peppers, deseed and cut out little stars with a star-shaped cookie cutter. Cut the remaining pepper pieces into bite-sized chunks and add to the baking dish with the cherry tomatoes.

Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper, then cover the baking dish with foil and bake in the preheated oven for 12 minutes.

While the vegetables are in the oven, prepare the pesto by putting all the ingredients in a small blender and whizzing to a smooth pesto.

Boil the tagliatelle in salted water for 5 minutes, reserving a small cup of pasta water. Drain and put back in the saucepan. Stir through the pesto and most of the roasted vegetables, leaving out the carrot tree stumps and two stars for the top.

Arrange the pasta in a triangle shape on two plates, and arrange some of the vegetables on the tree to form baubles. Put a star on the top of each tree and a carrot slice at the bottom to form the base.