Make Frankenstein Pesto Pasta For Halloween

6 Servings
18 min

Two years ago I started teaching kids cooking classes but then COVID struck! We were having so much fun and the kids loved it! During Halloween I found some super cute Halloween meal ideas on Pinterest. I decided to Make Frankenstein Pesto Pasta For Halloween by Super Healthy Kids. All my students would learn lots of cooking skills by making this recipe!

Making Homemade Pesto for Frankenstein Pasta

The first thing I taught the kids how to do was to chop fresh garlic. I showed them how to do this by laying the flat side of the knife against the clove of garlic and pounding on it with your other hand to smash it. Once you do that the skin is easy to get off and the garlic is somewhat smashed and easy to finely chop.


They loved the smashing part as you can imagine haha

Next I showed them how to add spinach, basil, pine nuts or sunflower seeds (we had a few kids with allergies to tree nuts), parmesan cheese, a pinch of salt and of course olive oil into my Cuisinart food processor. They loved seeing the the spinach turn into a paste.

For some classes we used all basil instead of spinach or even some fresh oregano worked great to make pesto. You can even use different nuts. I have even made Asparagus pesto pasta before and it is so good!


Boiling Pasta for the Frankenstein Face

I boiled the water and and showed the kids what boiling water looks like before we added the rotini pasta. We cooked it until it was al dente (cooked but still firm when bitten into). Then we added the pesto sauce.

Then the kids got to use their knife skills by cutting up olives, cucumbers and fresh mozzeralla. If you love mozzarella and parmesan cheese you have got to try my white lasagna recipe!

Creating Frankenstein Pesto Pasta Faces

I love to see kids use their imaginations to come up with their idea of a Halloween Pesto Pasta Frankenstein face. Some looked like cats with whiskers.

Watching the kids faces after they created Frankenstein faces was the best part! They loved making this dish and using food to create a creepy monster face. They were so proud of what they accomplished. You should check out how I taught these kids how to make chicken tacos here.

Slithering Snake Breadsticks

To go along with our Frankenstein pesto Pasta dish we had the kids make some slithering snake breadsticks! They got a kick out of these. Simply using Pillsbury breadstick Pop N Fresh dough and cut them into skinny strips. Twist them around a greased chop stick, this creates the body. Add red pepper pieces for the tongues and little pieces of black olives for the eyes. Brush them with some melted butter and sprinkle poppy seeds on them. Bake them for about 15-20 min. in a 350 degree oven.


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Make Frankenstein Pesto Pasta For Halloween
Recipe details
  • 6  Servings
  • Prep time: 10 Minutes Cook time: 8 Minutes Total time: 18 min
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Ingredients
Spinach Pesto
  • 2 C Spinach or a mix of spinach and basil
  • 1/3 C Sunflower Seeds or Pine nuts
  • 2 Cloves Garlic
  • 1 tbsp lemon
  • Salt and Pepper To taste
  • 1/3 C Olive Oil
Pasta
  • 16 ounces Rontini Pasta (cook according to directions)
To create Frankenstein Face
  • 1 English Cucumber
  • 4 oz Fresh Mozzarella sliced into circles
  • 1 can black olives
  • 1 red pepper Cut into small pieces for snake tongue
Instructions
Pesto
Add basil, sunflower seeds or pine nuts, garlic, lemon juice, and salt & pepper to taste to a cuisinart food processor.Pulse until combined. Slowly drizzle the olive oil into the food processor tube until a sauce forms. You can add more olive oil or less depending on desired consistencyPour on pasta and toss.
Pasta
Follow directions on box to cook the pasta
Create Frankenstein Face
Cut cucumber in half. Peel and chop one half to be used in the pasta dish For the other half create the Frankenstein bolts. Cut small pieces of red pepper into long skinny tongues. Cut olive pieces into small pieces for eyes Place two slices of mozzarella on the pasta for eyes and olive slices for the pupils. Take olives and create Frankenstein hair, one olive for nose and a few for a smile.
Karins Kottage
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