Pasta with Bronte Pistachio Pesto
Traditional and Bimby Recipe
Today I want to offer you a delicious seasoning to flavor pasta, meat, and even fish: our “green gold” the Bronte pistachio.
To lighten our sauce, I used sheep ricotta, but if you want a richer sauce, you can replace the ricotta with cooking cream or béchamel.
This sauce also lends itself to making pistachio lasagna pie.
Let’s get to know this wonder:
The Bronte pistachio is known and appreciated worldwide, distinguishable from other pistachios by its typical purplish hues on the outside, on the skin covering the seed, its unique aroma and characteristic emerald green color, while others are yellowish.
Bronte pistachios grow on the slopes of Mount Etna, in the province of Catania, on rough and ash-rich terrain. Here, Sicily’s green gold is cultivated without fertilizers and treatments, harvesting the precious fruits every other year.
The pistachio harvest, which takes place between late August and early October, involves the entire population engaged in hand-picking the precious fruits in rough places, on steep terrain, climbing among branches and lava rocks.
Within a few hours of harvest, the seed is separated from the outer shell and dried at about 104°F to remove moisture.
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- Cost: Medium
- Preparation time: 10 Minutes
- Portions: 4
- Cooking methods: Stove
- Cuisine: Regional Italian
- Seasonality: All seasons
- Energy 615.97 (Kcal)
- Carbohydrates 38.63 (g) of which sugars 4.94 (g)
- Proteins 20.23 (g)
- Fat 44.49 (g) of which saturated 10.48 (g)of which unsaturated 17.08 (g)
- Fibers 5.56 (g)
- Sodium 406.63 (mg)
Indicative values for a portion of 350 g processed in an automated way starting from the nutritional information available on the CREA* and FoodData Central** databases. It is not food and / or nutritional advice.
* CREATES Food and Nutrition Research Center: https://www.crea.gov.it/alimenti-e-nutrizione https://www.alimentinutrizione.it ** U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central, 2019. https://fdc.nal.usda.gov
Ingredients
Let’s go shopping
- 12 oz pasta
- 1/2 cup Parmigiano Reggiano DOP (grated)
- 1 cup Bronte pistachios DOP
- 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 2/3 cup sheep ricotta
- 1 clove garlic
- 5 leaves basil (or 2 sprigs of parsley)
- to taste salt
Pasta with Bronte Pistachio Pesto
Tools
What we need to make
- 1 Food Processor or Bimby
- 1 Pot
Steps
Let’s cook the
Put the water for the pasta on the stove with a pinch of salt.
Place in the bowl of your food processor or Bimby the grated Parmigiano Reggiano, pistachios, extra virgin olive oil, basil or parsley, salt, ricotta, and, if you like, garlic, blend until the mixture is almost creamy. With the Bimby: 20 sec./speed 7.
Cook the pasta al dente and set aside 2 ladles of the pasta cooking water. Then drain it and transfer it to a large bowl. Never on the stove.
Add the pistachio pesto and 1 ladle of cooking water, mix, and if you like you can add more cooking water depending on your taste if you prefer a thin or thick sauce. Serve immediately. The Pasta with Bronte Pistachio Pesto is ready.
Storage and Variations
Pasta with Bronte Pistachio Pesto.
Storage: You can keep the pesto in the fridge for up to 2 days and in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Variations: You can enrich this dish with chopped mortadella with pistachios.
FAQ (Questions and Answers)
Pasta with Bronte Pistachio Pesto
Can I use commercially available pistachio pesto?
Yes, certainly.
