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Pesto “alla trapanese”

Pesto alla trapanese

the perfect velvet pink…

Pesto alla trapanese

I already know that the question will be “is it better pesto alla genovese or pesto alla trapanese?”. They come from a different tradition (the first one from Liguria, while the second one from Sicily), and both are really delicious, but I find Pesto alla trapanese an easy and fresh solution for a summer recipe. In the original recipe, we have fresh peeled tomatoes, blanched almonds, garlic, olive oil, and basil. I’ve tried different variations of this recipe: chunky or blended and I came to the conclusion that I like something in between. For my vegetarian readers, you can add some grana or pecorino cheese, honestly, this combination of flavors is just perfect! But if you want to try my vegan version you only need to add some nutritional yeast. Imagine making this recipe on a sunny summer day…maybe visiting Italy! You need to buy these few fresh ingredients and prepare the pesto on advance and store it in the fridge so that on the way back from the beach you only have to cook some spaghetti al dente and that’s all. This is what my mother used to cook for us kids in our summer house in Sicily. We also had a little garden where we grew basil.

‘Now more than ever do I realise that I will never be content with a sedentary life…’

Isabelle Eberhardt

Pesto alla trapanese

  • Servings: 4
  • Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients

  • 400g fresh tomatoes
  • a handful of blanched almonds
  • 3 garlic cloves
  • fresh basil
  • 2-4 tbsp olive oil
  • salt & pepper
  •  1 tbsp nutritional yeast

Directions

  1. cover the tomatoes with hot water and let it rest for 5 minutes. It will help to easily peel them.
  2. Same procedure with the almonds if they still have the skin
  3. on a bowl (or blender) combine all the ingredients and mash them
  4. add salt and pepper
  5. cook the spaghetti al dente


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