Spaghetti Squash With Basil Pesto

Pesto is an olive oil-based sauce from Italy. Traditional pesto is made with fresh basil, Parmesan cheese, pine nuts, olive oil and garlic, seasoned with salt and black pepper. Although pesto pasta is a tasty dish, it also contains lots of calories, fat and carbohydrates. Fortunately, you can cut out some of the dish's calories by substituting the pasta with delicious, low-calorie spaghetti squash.

Olive Oil

Filled with heart-healthy mono- and polyunsaturated fatty acids, also called MUFAs and PUFAs, olive oil is the base for pesto that brings the dry ingredients together as a sauce. According to the Mayo Clinic, unsaturated fatty acids may help lower your blood cholesterol levels and reduce your risk of heart disease. Although olive oil is high in fat, most of the fat is heart-healthy MUFAs and PUFAs. Half a cup of olive oil contains around 950 calories and 108 g of fat, of which 80 g is MUFAs, 11 g is PUFAs and 15 g is saturated fatty acids. Olive oil is also a good source of vitamin E and contains some vitamin K.

Fresh Basil

Where olive oil is the base for basil pesto, fresh basil makes the pesto. Freshly chopped basil is a "must" for a classic pesto. Use a typical sweet basil to enjoy classic Italian flavor or try a lemon or Thai basil for a different twist to your dinner. Basil is a low-calorie herb filled with essential vitamins and minerals. One cup of fresh basil leaves contains 11 calories, a little over 1 g of protein, around 9 mg of vitamin C, 2,500 IU of vitamin A, 200 mcg of vitamin K and 1.5 mg of iron, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Pine Nuts

In addition to fresh basil, pine nuts are an important ingredient for a classic Italian pesto as they give the basil pesto a distinctive flavor. Pine nuts are actually seeds packed with protein and heart-healthy fatty acids. Almost 80 percent of the total fat in pine nuts is composed of heart-healthy MUFAs and PUFAs. A 1/3 cup serving contains around 300 calories, 6 g of protein, 6 g of carbohydrate and 30 g of total fat, of which 23 g is unsaturated fatty acids. Pine nuts also have around 2.5 mg of iron, 2.9 mg of zinc, 4 mg of manganese, 2 mg of niacin and 4 mg of vitamin E.

Spaghetti Squash

Pesto is typically served with pasta, such as spaghetti. However, pasta is well known for its high carbohydrate content and is thus often avoided during a diet. To reduce your dinner's carbohydrate content, replace wheat spaghetti with strands of spaghetti squash. Spaghetti squash is a winter squash that cooks into long strands that resemble spaghetti. Additionally, spaghetti squash contains very few calories and serves as a low-calorie alternative to regular pasta. Baked spaghetti squash has only 40 calories, 1 g of protein, 10 g of carbohydrate and less than 0.5 g of fat in 1 cup, according to USDA.

Homemade Pesto

Ready-made pesto sauce is found in many grocery stores. However, homemade pesto is easy to make in two simple steps. First, all of the ingredients besides the olive oil are chopped with a blender or food processor. For example, you can combine 1/3 cup pine nuts, ½ cup grated Parmesan cheese, 2 cups fresh basil and two minced garlic cloves in a blender and pulse the ingredients until they form a rough paste. Let the processor run and slowly add 1/2 cup of olive oil. Mix until you get a uniform paste and season with salt and black pepper to taste. To create squash "spaghetti," bake the squash halves in the oven at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for about an hour, then scrape the squash's flesh with a spoon to remove "spaghetti" strands. Combine the squash strands with the heated pesto in a bowl and serve.