Rigatoni With Sicilian Pesto Pesto Alla Trapanese Recipes

PESTO ALLA TRAPANESE (SICILIAN PESTO RECIPE)

Steps:

• Boil water in a small sauce pan, add almonds and boil for 1 minute. Drain and when they're cool enough to handle use your fingers to peel off the skin. It will easily slip off. Preheat oven to 350F and toast almonds for 10 minutes.
• Score the top of each tomato with a sharp knife. Bring water in that same sauce pan to a gentle boil. Add tomatoes and blanch for 1 minute. The skin will begin to shrivel. Drain and place in a bowl. When cool enough to handle, peel off the skin, roughly chop the tomatoes and set aside in a bowl.
• Place garlic and a pinch of salt in the mortar and crush until you have a paste. Add almonds and continue crushing until you have a rough paste. Finally, add basil leaves and another pinch of salt and grind all ingredients together until well combined.
• Transfer the mixture to the bowl with the cherry tomatoes and stir until combined. The pesto will have small chunks of tomatoes and will not be as smooth as pesto made in a food processor. If your mortar is large enough, you can also add the tomatoes to the almond mixture and grind all ingredients together.
• Place all ingredients in the bowl of your food processor and process until smooth. For a chunkier consistency pulse a few times until you have the desired texture. Add salt, to taste.

RIGATONI WITH SICILIAN PESTO (PESTO ALLA TRAPANESE)

Steps:

• Fill a stock pot half ways with cold water, season generously with sea salt & heat with a high heat
• Meanwhile, heat a small fry pan with a medium heat and add in 1/2 cup raw blanched almonds, mix continuously, after 4 minutes and the almonds are lightly toasted, remove them from the heat and transfer into a bowl so they can slightly cool off
• After a couple minutes add the almonds into a food processor, along with 3 cloves of garlic, run on a low speed for 15 to 20 seconds or until the almonds and garlic are finely chopped, then add in 1 lbs tomatoes (cut into quarters), 1 cup basil leaves and season generously with sea salt & black pepper, run the food processor on a low speed until everything is well blended, then slowly add in 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil while still running the processor, then run for another 1 to 2 minutes, then add in 1/2 cup grated cheese and run for another 30 seconds, set aside
• Once the water comes to a boil on the stock pot, add in 2 cups rigatoni, cook until al dente, reserve a little of the pasta water if you want to thin out your pesto sauce, then drain the pasta into a colander, add the pasta back into the stock pot (heat turned off), pour the pesto sauce over the rigatoni and mix together
• Transfer into shallow bowls and garnish with basil leaves, serve at once, enjoy!