Pesto alla Trapanese

A pesto of almonds and raw tomato, pounded coarser than the Genoese.

Not vegetarian — contains pecorino whose rennet the source does not name.

Ingredients

• 120 g blanched almonds
• 500 g very ripe tomatoes, peeled and deseeded
• a large handful of basil
• 2 garlic cloves
• 60 g pecorino, grated
• 100 ml olive oil
• 1 teaspoon coarse salt

Method

1. ALMONDS, NOT PINE NUTS, AND RAW TOMATO, which the Genoese pesto has none of. Those two swaps are the dish, and it ends up orange rather than green.
2. Toast the almonds lightly and let them cool completely. Warm nuts turn to butter under the pestle.
3. Pound the garlic with the salt, then the almonds, to a coarse rubble — STOP WELL SHORT OF A PASTE. You should still be able to see pieces of almond, and that texture against the soft tomato is the point.
4. Peel and deseed the tomatoes and squeeze the watery pulp out. Seeds make it bitter and water makes it a dressing.
5. Pound the tomato flesh in, then the basil, then work in the pecorino and the oil.
6. NOTHING IS COOKED. Like the Genoese, it goes into a warmed bowl and the hot pasta comes to it, loosened with a little pasta water — never the other way round.
7. It is dressed on busiate or spaghetti and eaten the same day; the raw tomato sours by the next.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Italy · All recipes