Spinach And Pasta Salad With Pesto

• 1/2 pound pasta (penne, gemelli, corkscrew, or shells)
• 12 ounces bag of baby spinach
• 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1/3 cup walnuts
• 1-2 tablespoons salt
• 1 cup freshly grated parmigiano reggiano cheese (or more, to suit your taste)
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 1 pint cherry tomatoes
• 1 handful of toasted pine nuts
• 1 lemon
• salt and pepper

1. Bring large pot of water to boil. Add pasta and cook for recommended time.
2. While the pasta is cooking, add 2/3 of the spinach into a food processor. Add olive oil, walnuts, garlic and salt. Process until you get desired texture - I prefer some slight chunks but you can also process it very smooth.
3. When pasta is done cooking, drain and rinse or shock pasta in cold water to stop the cooking process and cool the pasta. Put pasta into a large salad bowl.
4. Add 2/3 of spinach pesto mixture to pasta and stir to coat. Sprinkle in 3/4 of the cheese while mixing to distribute. Check seasoning and add salt or more cheese if necessary. If taking this to a potluck, here is a good stopping point. You can dress the salad and toss all the ingredients together right before serving to make sure the spinach doesn't wilt.
5. Add rest of spinach to bowl and most of tomatoes. Squeeze a little lemon juice onto leaves and add the rest of the pesto and a sprinkling of salt. Toss leaves to coat.
6. Bring pasta up from bottom and toss with greens. Add remaining tomatoes, pine nuts and cheese before serving.

pasta, baby spinach, extra virgin olive oil, walnuts, salt, freshly grated parmigiano reggiano cheese, garlic, tomatoes, handful, lemon, salt

Taken from food52.com/recipes/3639-spinach-and-pasta-salad-with-pesto (may not work)