Pasta Con Pesto Siciliano 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.

PASTA SICILIANO

Steps:

• Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Place farfalle pasta in the pot, cook for 8 to 10 minutes, until al dente, and drain.
• Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat, and cook the garlic until lightly browned. Mix in red pepper and lemon juice. Stir in the pine nuts, olives, and sun-dried tomatoes. Toss in the cooked pasta and feta cheese. Season with salt and pepper.

PASTA CON PESTO SICILIANO

Steps:

• Thinly slice the eggplant and sprinkle slices with salt. Let stand for about 30 minutes and then dry eggplant on clean kitchen or paper towels.
• Heat about 1-inch of oil in a large saute pan to 350 degrees F.
• In the bowl of a food processor, chop the garlic and basil, slowly adding 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil to incorporate well. Stir in the tomatoes, 1 teaspoon salt, red pepper flakes, and almonds and set aside.
• When oil is hot, fry eggplant slices, in batches, in hot oil until light golden brown. Remove and drain on paper towels. Sprinkle with salt.
• Meanwhile, cook pasta in boiling salted water until al dente; drain, reserving 1 cup of the cooking water.
• Toss the pasta with the pesto, adding as much cooking liquid as necessary. Add fried eggplant slices and toss gently to combine. Sprinkle with toasted bread crumbs and grated cacciocavallo, if desired. Serve.
• Pasta:
• 3 cups flour "00" or fine ground semolina
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 3 large eggs
• Place the flour on the counter or in a large bowl. Stir in the salt and make a well. Beat the 3 eggs in the center of the well, and slowly incorporate all the flour. Knead until smooth and then let rest for about 30 minutes. Roll out dough to about 1/4-inch thick and then cut into desired shape.

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!

PESTO ALLA SICILIANA

Steps:

• Combine Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, olive oil, basil leaves, pine nuts, and garlic in a mortar. Crush with a pestle until pesto is finely ground, but not too smooth.
• Mix pesto, cherry tomatoes, and ricotta cheese together in a bowl. Season with salt and pepper.