Spaghetti With Pesto Trapanese Food

PESTO ALLA TRAPANESE

Steps:

• Crush garlic using a mortar and pestle. Add basil leaves gradually, making circular movements with the pestle, until a smooth paste forms. Season with salt. Transfer to a bowl and mix in olive oil.
• Add almonds to a skillet over medium heat and toast, while stirring, until fragrant and lightly browned, 3 to 4 minutes. Add to mortar and pestle and crush into a coarse flour. Mix with basil paste in the bowl. Stir in tomatoes and add more olive oil if you like more sauce. Mix in Parmesan cheese and season with salt, pepper, and lemon juice.
• Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Cook spaghetti in the boiling water, stirring occasionally, until tender yet firm to the bite, about 12 minutes. Drain and mix with pesto.

LINGUINE WITH PESTO TRAPANESE

Steps:

• Sauté the almonds in a little olive oil until tan.
• Put basil, garlic, and salt in food processor and chop. Put aside.
• Put in almonds and pulse until size of orzo.
• Put tomatoes, almonds, basil garlic, cheese, and olive oil back in food processor and whir briefly. Add some fresh-ground coarse pepper.
• Boil linguine. If you are Sicilian, become hysterical at the prospect of overcooked pasta. Break open a strand every 60 seconds, and when there is one tiny white speck at the center, drain instantly. Save a cupful of pasta water.
• Put pasta in with pesto and mix quickly. Add a little pasta water if necessary. Serve lukewarm or at room temperature.

SPAGHETTI WITH PESTO TRAPANESE RECIPE

Steps:

• Rinse the cherry tomatoes and pat them dry. Rinse the basil leaves and pat dry.
• Drop the tomatoes into the blender jar or food processor bowl followed by the garlic clove, the almonds, basil leaves, peperoncino and 1/2 tsp salt. Blend for a minute or more to a fine purée; scrape down the bowl and blend again if any large bits or pieces have survived.
• With the machine still running, pour in the olive oil in a steady stream, emulsifying the purée into a thick pesto. Taste and adjust seasoning. (If you're going to dress the pasta within a couple of hours, leave the pesto at room temperature. Refrigerate for longer storage, up to 2 days, but let it return to room temperature before cooking the pasta.)
• To cook the spaghetti, heat 6 quarts of water, with 1 tablespoon salt to the boil in the large pot. Scrape all the pesto into a big warm bowl.
• Cook the spaghetti al dente, lift it from the cooking pot, drain briefly, and drop onto the pesto. Toss quickly to coat the spaghetti, sprinkle the cheese all over, and toss again. Serve immediately in warm bowls.

ANNA'S SPAGHETTI AND PESTO TRAPANESE (PESTO ALLA ANNA)

Steps:

• Rinse the cherry tomatoes and basil leaves and pat them dry.
• Drop the tomatoes into the blender jar or food processor bowl followed by the garlic clove, almonds, basil leaves, peperoncino, and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Blend for a minute or more to a fine puree; scrape down the bowl and blend again if any large bits or pieces have survived.
• With the machine still running, pour in the olive oil in a steady stream, emulsifying the puree into a thick pesto. Taste and adjust seasoning. (If you're going to dress the pasta within a couple of hours, leave the pesto at room temperature. Refrigerate for longer storage, up to 2 days, but let it return to room temperature before cooking the pasta.)
• To cook the spaghetti, heat 6 quarts of water, with 1 tablespoon salt, to boil in a large pot.
• Scrape all the pesto into a big warm bowl. Cook the spaghetti al dente, lift it from the cooking pot, drain briefly, and drop onto the pesto. Toss quickly to coat the spaghetti, sprinkle the cheese all over, and toss again. Serve immediately in warm bowls.

PASTA ALLA TRAPANESE: TRAPANESE-STYLE PASTA

Steps:

• To make the sauce also called 'pesto alla trapanese': Put the tomatoes, garlic and basil in a large mortar. Add the extra-virgin olive oil, salt and use a pestle to crush the ingredients into a paste. If the pesto looks too dry, add more olive oil. Crush the ingredients until the pesto sauce is even in consistency. Alternatively, place the above ingredients in a food processor and puree.
• Heat up extra-virgin olive oil in a saucepan and fry the eggplant until golden.
• Place the fried eggplant on an absorbent paper towel to drain the excess oil. Season the eggplant, while hot, with salt. Follow the same procedure to fry up the potatoes. Place the spaghetti in a pot of boiling salted water. Stir initially to prevent the strands from sticking.
• Drain the spaghetti when it is 'al dente'. Place the spaghetti in a large mixing bowl, add the pesto sauce, half the quantity of the fried eggplant, potatoes, Pecorino cheese, and mix thoroughly. Transfer to a large serving bowl and top with the remaining eggplant, potatoes and Pecorino cheese. Serve immediately.

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 WITH TOMATO AND ALMOND PESTO (PESTO ALLA TRAPANESE)

Steps:

• A half teaspoon of red wine vinegar and ¼ teaspoon of red pepper flakes can be substituted for the pepperoncini. If you don't have a food processor, a blender may be substituted. In step 2, pulse ingredients until roughly chopped, then proceed with the recipe, reducing processing times by half.
• 1. Toast almonds in small skillet over medium heat, stirring frequently, until pale golden and fragrant, 2 to 4 minutes. Cool almonds to room temperature.
• 2. Process cooled almonds, tomatoes, basil, garlic, pepperoncini, 1 teaspoon salt, and red pepper flakes (if using) in food processor until smooth, about 1 minute. Scrape down sides of bowl with rubber spatula. With machine running, slowly drizzle in oil, about 30 seconds.
• 3. Meanwhile, bring 4 quarts water to boil in large pot. Add pasta and 1 tablespoon salt and cook until al dente. Reserve ½ cup cooking water; drain pasta and transfer back to cooking pot.
• 4. Add pesto and ½ cup Parmesan to cooked pasta, adjusting consistency with reser.

PASTA CON IL PESTO ALLA TRAPANESE (TOMATO AND ALMOND PESTO)

Steps:

• Cover the almonds with boiling water for a few minutes to loosen their skins, then slip them off with your fingers when they are cool enough to handle. Try not to cut corners and use ready blanched almonds, as nuts quickly lose their flavour without their protective skins. Toast the almonds in a non-stick frying pan, stirring frequently for a few minutes until they are pale gold.
• Whizz the basil, garlic and a little coarse sea salt in a food processor and tip into a large bowl. Process the almonds, again with a little salt, using the pulse button, until they're the size of small grains of rice.
• Peel the tomatoes, de-seed by halving and squeezing over the sink, then chop into medium dice. Mix the tomatoes and the almonds into the basil and garlic, add the grated cheese and olive oil and mix well. Taste and season with pepper and - only if needed - a little salt.
• Boil the pasta in the usual way, taking care to keep it very al dente, especially if you are planning to serve it cold. The Sicilians are probably the most fussy of all Italians about pasta, and they are very quick to declare it scotta, which means overcooked. To judge when to drain the pasta, cut a piece of pasta open: when it has a tiny uncooked white speck at the centre, drain it. It will be perfectly cooked all the way through by the time you serve it.
• Drain the pasta but reserve a couple of ladles of the pasta water. Tip the pasta into the bowl with the pesto and mix it gently but quickly, so that the melting cheese is well distributed. Add a little pasta water if necessary so the sauce lightly coats each pasta corkscrew. The pasta can be served now, lukewarm, or at room temperature, but don't chill, as this dulls the heady aromas which are the joy of this dish.

LIDIA BASTIANICH'S SPAGHETTI AND PESTO TRAPANESE

Steps:

• Rinse the cherry tomatoes and pat them dry. Rinse the basil leaves and pat dry. Drop the tomatoes into the blender jar or food processor bowl followed by the garlic clove, the almonds, basil leaves, peperoncino and salt. Blend for a minute or more to a fine purée; scrape down the bowl and blend again if any large bits or pieces have survived. With the machine still running, pour in the olive oil in a steady stream, emulsifying the purée into a thick pesto. Taste and adjust seasoning. (If you're going dress the pasta within a couple of hours, leave the pesto at room temperature. Refrigerate it for longer storage, up to 2 days, but let it return to room temperature before cooking the pasta.) To cook the spaghetti, heat 6 quarts of water, with 1 tbsp salt, to a boil in the large pot. Scrape all the pesto into a big warm bowl. Cook the spaghetti al dente, lift it from the cooking pot, drain briefly, and drop onto the pesto. Toss quickly to coat the spaghetti, sprinkle the cheese all over, and toss again. Serve immediately in warm bowls.

SPAGHETTI WITH PESTO TRAPANESE

Steps:

• Grind almonds and garlic in processor. Add 1 cup basil and chop finely. Add 6 peeled tomatoes and chop finely. Add oil and puree until almost smooth. Season with salt and pepper. (Can be prepared 6 hours ahead. Cover and chill.)
• Cook spaghetti in large pot of boiling salted water until tender but still firm to bite. Drain. Return to pot. Add sauce and toss to coat. Transfer to large bowl. Top with slivered basil and tomatoes. Serve, passing cheese separately.