This is hands down my favorite pasta recipe for the spring and summer. Cristiano's mom and nonna make it and they call it "pasta alla trapanese." I've never been to Trapani so I can't vouch for its authenticity, but whatever its origin, I love it. It's easy, fresh and delicious.
Pasta alla Trapanese
Ingredients for four people:
About 400 grams of pasta (I like cavatelli, shells or penne for this recipe)
About 500 grams of cherry tomatoes (one large plastic container with about 30 large cherry tomatoes in it)
Peeled whole almonds (a large handful - about 25)
Two garlic cloves
Olive oil
A handful of basil leaves
Salt
Clean and pierce each of the cherry tomatoes and squeeze out the little seeds in the sink. Put the squeezed cherry tomatoes aside in a large bowl or plastic container. In the meantime, using a hand mixer/processor (I have the Braun one like this), chop up the almonds and garlic cloves with about 1/2 cup of olive oil. You may need to add more oil. Don't blend too much - it should be a very thick oil with plenty of chopped almond bits in it and NOT have the consistency of creamy peanut butter. If you do blend too much and it comes out like a paste, pazienza, you can still use it. Add the almond-garlic-oil mixture to the tomatoes. Here you've got two options. You can try to smash it all together by hand with something, such as a pestle, or you can take your hand mixer and quickly blend (maybe two or three short pulses) but making sure to maintain the form of most of the cherry tomatoes. The tomatoes should not be pulverized but should maintain a general smashed cherry-tomato shape. Cut up your basil leaves (in slivers or however you want) and add the basil. Add salt and more oil (if needed - it should be a consistent mixture, more tomato-y than oily) to taste. Cook your pasta and when it's ready add the pasta to the sauce. The pasta and sauce mixture does NOT get heated up over the flame. The sauce goes on cold. It's a somewhat lukewarm pasta dish nice for a spring or summer day. The sauce is even better if made a few hours before making the pasta and let sit. Enjoy!
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5 comments:
Sounds delicious! I am going to try this one! Thanks for sharing.
Sounds like the dish that Jeff just posted on his blog.
Yeay, I am alwsy looking for new pasta dishes to make on those hot summer days. Thanks!
Mmm, I love almonds. Can't wait to try the recipe, thanks!
This is a yummy one. Glad you liked it.
Gil, I looked at Jeff's blog but his recipe has meat in it (and no almond pesto mixture). Just goes to show how many sauces one can make with the humble cherry tomato.
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