My new late night addiction!

Since moving jobs I've been to a lot more evening events - this has created the need to perfect a super fast late night meal which is still healthy and, more importantly, tasty! This dish turns up in so many guises on my Instagram feed that I felt the need to actually write it down despite the fact that it's not exactly a recipe - as you can imagine it changes slightly each time I make it depending on what I've got in the fridge. It's a great way of cooking something comforting while sneaking loads of veg in so is also a good option for kids.

Pimped up pasta and pesto

Gluten free pasta (non-gf is also fine if you prefer)
Green vegetables, as many as you like - I tend to use a mix of peas, kale, spinach, broccoli, edamame beans (and/or anything else you have to hand)
Pesto - I use jarred as this is a late night speedy dish but it would be lovely with homemade too
Optional extras - garlic infused rapeseed oil, mashed avocado, herbs (basil and parsley are what I use purely because they grow on my windowsill), parmesan, goats' cheese

Cook the pasta in a large pan of boiling salted water, time it so you add the vegetables as they will need to cook. I normally add broccoli along with the pasta because I like it to go slightly soft so I can mash it up into the pesto a bit.
While the pasta and vegetables are cooking you can do a few extras if you have the energy. To make the infused rapeseed oil I finely chop a clove of garlic and put it in my serving bowl with a thin covering of rapeseed oil, I heat this in the microwave for a super short burst to allow the oil to warm and the garlic to start to infuse.
If you're using the oil method it's quite nice to add some fresh herbs once it's warm as they will infuse throughout the dish - you might also want to add half a mashed avocado if you've got one handy, it's lovely and creamy and adds to your 5 a day, this is a great way of introducing avocado to people who aren't keen on the texture.
Add pesto to this mix and combine with the cooked pasta and vegetables (if you're not using the mix just add pesto on it's own) - I'd also suggest reserving a bit of the pasta water as you may want to add bit of this to thin out your veg and pesto mix.
Serve topped with fresh basil, a grate of parmesan and / or some crumbled goats' cheese - if you only have soft goats' cheese this is also nice stirred in with the pesto.