Description
Sicily’s no-cook answer to pesto. Raw tomatoes, almonds, basil, and pecorino, pounded together. Ready before the pasta water boils. Made for the hottest days of summer.
Ingredients
Scale
- 1 ½ pounds ripe tomatoes, cored and roughly chopped
- ¾ cup blanched whole almonds
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1 cup fresh basil leaves, packed
- ½ cup extra virgin olive oil
- ½ cup grated pecorino, plus more for the table
- 1 teaspoon salt, plus more for the pasta water
- 1 pound busiate, casarecce, or fusilli
Instructions
- Pulse the almonds and garlic in a food processor until they look like coarse sand. Add the tomatoes, basil, and salt and pulse again. Stop while the sauce still has texture. This is not a puree. With the machine off, stir in the olive oil and pecorino by hand.
- Taste. It should be bright, a little sweet, faintly bitter from the almonds. Adjust the salt. Let it sit at room temperature while the pasta cooks.
- Cook the pasta in well-salted water. Before draining, reserve a cup of the pasta water. Drain the pasta and toss it with the sauce off the heat, adding a splash of the reserved water if the sauce needs loosening. The sauce is never cooked, only warmed by the pasta. Serve with more pecorino!
Notes
- Tomatoes: In high summer, use the ripest tomatoes you can find, the ones that smell like tomatoes at the stem.
- Almonds: Blanched whole almonds are worth seeking out. If you blanch your own, let them air dry a few hours before using, as damp almonds turn the sauce pasty. Slivered almonds from the baking aisle will work in a pinch.
- Make ahead: The sauce holds at room temperature for a few hours. It can be made in the morning for dinner that night. Refrigerate only if you must and bring it fully back to room temperature before serving. Cold will mute the delicious aroma of the tomato.
- The purist’s note: In Trapani, this is made in a mortar, and the texture is genuinely different, looser and more fragrant. If you have twenty minutes and a big mortar, pound the garlic and salt first, then the almonds, then the basil, and fold in the tomatoes crushed by hand. The food processor version is the one I usually make, but if you have a few extra minutes, grab that mortar and pestle.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 12 minutes (depending on the pasta)
- Category: Dinner, Lunch, Main course, Pasta
- Cuisine: Italian