Pasta with Beans & Pesto
Browned zucchini, cannellini beans, and sun-dried tomatoes tossed through whole wheat penne with a spoonful of pesto. The arugula goes in last, raw, wilting just enough from the residual heat to soften without losing its peppery bite.
32 grams of protein and 19 grams of fiber from plants alone. No meat, no protein powder, no supplements. Just penne, beans, and pesto doing what that combination has done in Italian kitchens for longer than anyone has been counting macros.
Ingredients
- penne, whole wheat 3 ounces
- zucchini 1
- sun-dried tomatoes 5 pieces
- cannellini beans 7 ounces
- olive oil 1 tablespoon
- pesto 1.5 tablespoon
- arugula 1 handful
Method
-
Bring a pot of water to a boil and cook the penne according to the package instructions.
-
Meanwhile, cut the zucchini into cubes and the sun-dried tomatoes into pieces. Rinse the beans in a colander with water.
-
Heat the oil in a pan. Add the zucchini cubes and cook them for about 4 to 5 minutes until the zucchini starts to brown. Add the sun-dried tomatoes, beans and pesto. Heat this for 1 minute.
-
Drain the pasta and mix it with the zucchini mixture. Finally, stir the arugula through the pasta. Season to taste with pepper and salt.
Give the zucchini cubes space in the pan. If they overlap, they steam in their own moisture instead of browning, and you lose the caramelized edges that hold up against the pesto.
Sun-dried tomatoes deliver 58% lycopene bioaccessibility compared to 28% for fresh. The drying process cracks open cell walls that normally trap lycopene inside the tomato matrix. The olive oil and pesto in this recipe provide the fat that helps your body absorb it.
Behind this recipe
Is 32 grams of plant protein enough for one meal?
Research suggests your body can use well beyond 20–30 grams of protein per meal for muscle building — higher doses just take longer to process. The 32 grams here come from cannellini beans, whole wheat penne, and pesto combined. For a single sitting, that is more than sufficient to support muscle protein synthesis.
Read the full evidence reviewCan I use regular pasta instead of whole wheat?
Yes. Regular penne works and the macros shift only slightly. The main difference is fiber: whole wheat penne contributes roughly 8 of the 19 total grams of fiber in this recipe. Swapping to white pasta drops the fiber but keeps the protein and calorie count nearly the same.
Can I swap the arugula for spinach?
Spinach works well. The flavor shifts from peppery to mild and earthy, and both wilt quickly from the residual heat of the pasta. Spinach delivers more iron and folate per handful, while arugula brings slightly more nitrate. Either way, add it last and toss quickly so it softens without losing its color.
