GO! Pesto™ - How Much Pesto For Pasta - Pesto Per Person (2024)

GO! Pesto™ - How Much Pesto For Pasta - Pesto Per Person (1)

Short answer
We recommend 50 grams of pesto per person if serving as a simple pasta dish. Our accountant recommends more.

Long answer
In Italy, you'll find that chefs use just enough pesto to coat the pasta, and they certainly don’t allow the dish to drown in it. As a very rough guide, your pesto should weigh about 2/3 the weight of the dried pasta you are cooking. So, for a standard, single serving of 75g of dried pasta, we think that 50g of pesto is about right.

Naturally, everyone’s tastes are different, so you’ll have to adjust the quantities up or down depending on who you are cooking for. It also greatly depends on what other ingredients you are serving your pasta with. If you're making a dish with chunks of chicken breast, for example, you’ll want to add a little more pesto to ensure the meat is as well coated as the pasta.

Bear in mind that you will (or we at least hope you will) be adding some extra liquid to your sauce in the form of some of the starchy water that the pasta cooked in.

This water is not only incredibly flavourful, but it also acts as an emulsifier and thickener that enables you to create a silky, luxuriously smooth, restaurant-quality sauce. It also helps your jar of pesto go that little bit further.

Approximate pesto-to-pasta ratio in grams
Note: 190g is the standard size jar for pesto in the UK, and that's perfect for feeding four adults. Likewise, for a standard 500g bag of dried pasta, we recommend using about 335g of pesto.

ServingsDried pastaPesto
175g50g
2150g100g
3225g150g
4300g200g
5375g250g
6450g300g
7525g350g
8600g400g
9675g450g
10750g500g

Approximate pesto-to-pasta ratio in pounds and ounces

Servings

Dried pastaPesto
12 oz1.3 oz
24 oz2.6 oz
36 oz4 oz
48 oz5.4 oz
510 oz6.6 oz
612 oz8 oz
714oz9.3 oz
816oz (1lb)10.6 oz
918 oz11.9 oz
1020 oz13.2 oz

A note on using spoon or cup sizes to measure pesto and pasta
We have purposely omitted a chart showing recommended cup sizes for two key reasons. Firstly, shapes that don't fit into a regular cup (e.g. spaghetti) simply can't be measured in the usual way. Secondly, tiny, compact pasta shapes like orzo can weigh up to twice as much as cylindrical shapes like penne, where much of the physical space is taken up by pockets of air.

GO! Pesto™ - How Much Pesto For Pasta - Pesto Per Person (2024)

FAQs

GO! Pesto™ - How Much Pesto For Pasta - Pesto Per Person? ›

For pesto sauces, use about one jar of 5.6-ounce sauce for a 16-ounce package of pasta. The amount of pesto sauce needed for pasta per person would be about . 75 ounces of sauce for each 2 ounce (about 1 cup cooked) serving of pasta.

How much pesto for pasta per person? ›

For pesto sauces, use about one jar of 5.6-ounce sauce for a 16-ounce package of pasta. The amount of pesto sauce needed for pasta per person would be about . 75 ounces of sauce for each 2 ounce (about 1 cup cooked) serving of pasta.

What is one serving of pesto? ›

Because it's made with olive oil, nuts, and cheese, classic pesto can contribute a fair amount of fat and calories to your diet. A 1/4-cup (63-gram) serving provides ( 1 ): Calories: 263. Protein: 6 grams.

How much pesto is in a jar? ›

Tesco Classic Green Pesto 190G - Tesco Groceries.

How much penne per person? ›

As with all dried pasta shapes, you should allow between 75g-100g of penne per person if serving as a main course. If you're using fresh penne, allow between 100g-125g per serving. Halve these amounts if you're serving pasta as a first course, which is how Italians prefer to eat their most beloved export.

How much pesto for 8 oz of pasta? ›

How Much Pesto To Add To Pasta?
ServingsDried pastaPesto
12 oz1.3 oz
24 oz2.6 oz
36 oz4 oz
48 oz5.4 oz
6 more rows
Jun 1, 2022

Do you add pesto to hot or cold pasta? ›

  1. It is better to mix your pesto to fresh boiled pasta, not for taste-reasons but for a rather practical issue: unseasoned pasta gets sticky when it cools down and you won't be able to mix it properly.
  2. If you please to have your pasta with pesto cold, season it warm and let it then cool down.
Aug 3, 2023

Do you add a whole jar of pesto? ›

I tend to use half a jar, it'll depend how much pasta you use. Depends how much pasta you cook surely? I cooked pasta for 2 teens tonight (which probably could have fed 3) and used about 2/3 of a jar of pesto.

How to use pesto from a jar? ›

What are some ways to use pesto sauce? Other than pairing it with pasta, pesto sauce is a great way to add flavoring to soups, dips, or vegetables. Add pesto sauce as a condiment on sandwiches or use it to make compound butter. Finally, adding pesto to scrambled eggs introduces bold flavoring to this simple dish.

Why is supermarket pesto so cheap? ›

Some producers cut corners further by simply using a generic "hard cheese." Oil is another ingredient where huge cost savings can be made. While small producers use the highest-quality extra-virgin olive oil, big producers replace some or all of it with much cheaper sunflower oil.

How many does 1 pound of pasta serve? ›

Most recipes call for one pound of pasta — which is a standard box or bag — to serve four to six people. It's far easier to eyeball this than fuss over specific measurements. I find that half the box, or a half-pound (eight ounces) of pasta, serves two to three people, depending on sauce and hunger level.

What is the correct portion of pasta per person? ›

Typically, Italian guidelines recommend the following quantities of uncooked pasta per person: 60-100g of dried pasta. 70-120g of fresh pasta. 100-130g of gnocchi.

How much pasta is enough for 4 people? ›

When serving pasta, plan on 85g cooked pasta per person for main dishes. To prepare 4 servings, you will need 300 g of pasta, or 1/3 of a 900 g. package. Use this chart to determine how much dry pasta to start with and to see the volume of cooked pasta you will end up with.

How much pesto should you eat? ›

No matter which tummy trouble you're experiencing, you should take 1 dose of Pepto Bismol every half hour to hour until you feel better, but do not take more than 8 doses in a 24-hour period.

How much sauce for 1 lb of pasta? ›

An average ratio of tomato sauce to pasta is 1 1/2 cups of sauce to 1 pound of pasta. For oil-based sauces, use 1 cup per 1 pound of pasta. Go even lighter with creamy, rich sauces. Typically, we like the ratio of one jar of our sauce to 1 pound (or package) of our pasta.

Top Articles
Latest Posts
Article information

Author: Sen. Ignacio Ratke

Last Updated:

Views: 5460

Rating: 4.6 / 5 (76 voted)

Reviews: 91% of readers found this page helpful

Author information

Name: Sen. Ignacio Ratke

Birthday: 1999-05-27

Address: Apt. 171 8116 Bailey Via, Roberthaven, GA 58289

Phone: +2585395768220

Job: Lead Liaison

Hobby: Lockpicking, LARPing, Lego building, Lapidary, Macrame, Book restoration, Bodybuilding

Introduction: My name is Sen. Ignacio Ratke, I am a adventurous, zealous, outstanding, agreeable, precious, excited, gifted person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.