Culinary Explorer
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Busiate al Pesto Trapanese
Created by Chef Graziella
Sicily's raw tomato and almond pesto, pounded in a mortar as it has been for centuries, tossed with hand-twisted pasta that traps the sauce in every spiral. Trapani's gift to the world.
Genoa does not own pesto. The Trapanese would like you to know this. While the Ligurians were grinding basil and pine nuts, the cooks of western Sicily were making their own version with almonds and ripe tomatoes, a sauce that tastes like summer concentrated in a mortar.
This is not a cooked sauce. The tomatoes are raw, crushed with almonds that the Arabs brought to Sicily a thousand years ago. The basil is pounded, not chopped. The garlic is present but restrained, as it must always be in Italian cooking. What emerges is bright, fresh, and utterly different from the green pesto most Americans know.
The pasta matters here. Busiate are hand-twisted spirals made by wrapping dough around a thin reed or knitting needle. The corkscrew shape catches the rough pesto in every turn. You can make this with store-bought fusilli if you must, but know that you are compromising. The Trapanese would not approve.
Ingredients
ripe tomatoes
Quantity
1 pound (about 3 medium)
at room temperature
blanched almonds
Quantity
1/2 cup
garlic cloves
Quantity
2
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| ripe tomatoesat room temperature | 1 pound (about 3 medium) |
| blanched almonds | 1/2 cup |
| garlic cloves | 2 |
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