Side Dish Sauces and Condiments Sauces Pesto 15 Quick and Easy Dinners Loaded With Pesto By Vanessa Greaves Vanessa Greaves Instagram Vanessa Greaves is a Senior Editor at Allrecipes with nearly two decades of experience helping home cooks gain confidence in the kitchen. A self-taught cook who grew up reading cookbooks for fun, Vanessa lives and breathes the challenges faced by busy everyday cooks to get dinner on the table. Allrecipes' editorial guidelines Updated on November 9, 2020 Share Tweet Pin Email Trending Videos Photo: Dianne Want a quick and easy pick-me-up for pasta, chicken, fish, eggs, and so much more? Reach for the pesto. This thick, intensely flavored paste — typically made of basil, olive oil, garlic, Parmesan cheese, and pine nuts — makes ordinary recipes sing out with joy. Keep unopened ready-made pesto in your pantry, or homemade pesto in your freezer, and great meals are just minutes away. Here are our 15 favorite recipes that call for this nutty, herby sauce. 01 of 15 Teena's Spicy Pesto Chicken and Pasta View Recipe LynnInHK "Killer pasta — took it to a friend's barbeque, and was kinda embarrassed that it took center stage over everything she had prepared for her party. This recipe needs no adjusting, it's perfect." —J. Shelby 02 of 15 Pesto Zoodles View Recipe Molly "Perfect meal for those busy nights when you need something healthy, filling, and quick." —Buckwheat Queen Delicious Ways to Use Pesto 03 of 15 Spinach Pesto Chicken Breasts View Recipe Life Tastes Good Four ingredients are all you'll need to make this quick and easy chicken dinner. It's easily customizable, too: Many reviewers used this as a base recipe and added their own touches with ingredients like garlic, onion, mushrooms, wine, tomatoes, and so on. How to Make Pesto Sauce 04 of 15 Pesto-Stuffed Grilled Portobellos View Recipe France C "This was so delicious! Near the end, I sprinkled with the grated Italian cheeses. Mouthwatering!" —AppleKrisp 05 of 15 Goat Cheese Arugula Pizza - No Red Sauce! View Recipe Kimber "This pizza is absolutely delicious! It's so easy and quick to prepare, but you feel like you're eating gourmet when you eat it." —annabarnes 06 of 15 Poached Eggs Caprese View Recipe bd.weld Breakfast for dinner gets an upgrade thanks to pesto, poached eggs, mozzarella cheese, and tomato slices atop toasted English muffins. And it all comes together in about 20 minutes. 07 of 15 Pesto Pasta Caprese Salad View Recipe Buckwheat Queen "Super simple, yet hugely popular at my house. During a season of hot weather, I make a huge batch of this in the morning and it lasted for days, and still tastes wonderful." —PAMFENWAY 08 of 15 Creamy Pesto Shrimp View Recipe Dianne This 5-star recipe is ready in 30 minutes but tastes like fine dining. Jill says, "OH MY GOSH I can NOT say enough about this recipe!! It was AWESOME and soo easy!" Fresh Takes on Traditional Homemade Pesto 09 of 15 Pesto Grilled Cheese Sandwich View Recipe Allrecipes Magazine "I first had this sandwich at a small restaurant and immediately went home to duplicate the recipe. I've been making my grilled cheese sandwiches this way ever since!" —RASSA2 10 of 15 Scallops with Pesto Cream Sauce View Recipe Allrecipes Magazine "It''s a wonderful surprise when you find a recipe that's this easy and tastes like you might find it at a fine French restaurant." —DanaV 11 of 15 Egg Pesto Breakfast Wrap View Recipe Linda T "This was great! I had some leftover pesto that I needed to use up. I didn't have the tomato or artichoke, which I'm sure would be delicious, but even without them this wrap was a winner!" —Yancando 12 of 15 Pesto Shrimp Sandwich View Recipe "I followed the recipe as written using homemade pesto. This is a delicious sandwich. I loved it and I will definitely make it again!" —Pam Ziegler Lutz 13 of 15 Pesto Chicken View Recipe SouthernBelle "I never really cook and yet this turned out great! It was easy and very delicious. For the pesto sauce, I used the recipe for 15-Year-Old Pesto Sauce, and it worked out really well." —lauramg 14 of 15 Smoked Salmon Pesto Pasta View Recipe BETHANYWEATHERSBY "Decided to add a sprinkling of lemon juice and a couple of dashes of Tabasco," writes home cook rua. "We also replaced the water with white wine, and that turned out to be the perfect combination. Will definitely be making again." 15 of 15 Pesto Polenta Lasagna View Recipe Cattack "Very smart base recipe! Polenta works wonderfully as a substitute for noodles and makes the meal lighter and lets the other ingredients used stand with their own flavors." —Maezystar See our entire collection of Pesto Recipes here. Was this page helpful? Thanks for your feedback! Tell us why! Other Submit