Pesto alla Siciliana Italian Recipe

Today I wanted to cook the classic pesto alla Genovese, as I began to think of the various ingredients... a tweet of Elisa, an Italian friend of mine, drew my attention, she was preparing an easy, fast and tasty traditional sauce from the Sicilian cuisine, the famous...

Pesto alla Siciliana !

I was tired of the classic pesto sauce and I wanted to change the color of my dough. The Sicilian pesto, then, is

the variant that suits me. 

- 10 Minutes Cooking time

- Difficulty : Easy

Ingredients: 

- Red tomatoes 500 gr 

- 50g pine nuts 

- Extra virgin olive oil 150 ml 

- salt 

- 1 clove of garlic 

- A generous bunch basil 

- Parmigiano Reggiano 100g 

- Ricotta 150g 

- Freshly ground pepper to taste

I'm so in love with this recipe so I decided to buy a real book of traditional Sicilian recipes, straight from Italy! My research is still going on! Stay tuned! (Pssst! Update! Finally got it on Amazon!)

The preparation of this release refers to the typical fruit of the land of this beautiful region: red tomatoes, cottage cheese, pine nuts and basil so that together create a riot of colors and flavors.

Preparation Step by Step

To prepare the Sicilian pesto, start by washing with tomatoes and dividing them in half. Once divided, remove the inside and squeeze them to remove the seeds and excess juice (1). Then washed basil leaves under running water (2) and, after being drained, pat dry with a cloth (3). 

 At this point, pour the tomatoes in a blender (4), add the basil leaves, washed and dried (5) and pine nuts (6). 

Peel a clove of garlic, divide it in half and add it to the mixture (7) together with the grated Parmesan cheese (8) and cottage cheese (9). Add salt and pepper to taste. 

After adding all the ingredients, pour the oil (10) and operate the mixer at low speed to control the degree of smoothness desired. You can, in fact, decide whether to get a compound more or less creamy. When the pesto reaches the right consistency, check whether you even need salt and pepper. Now the Sicilian pesto is ready to enrich and color your pasta (12)!

Agnese Advices!

The Sicilian pesto provides many variations to try a different flavor, you can replace the pine nuts (fully or partially) with the peeled almonds. You can achieve the Sicilian pesto using an immersion blender: work will take longer, but you will get a less creamy, with bits more visible.