Sicilian Pasta with Five Nut Pesto
Eight years ago, I married my Sicilian husband on the farm we built in Napa, California. I had a large kitchen, and since it was a small (25 people) family wedding, I decided to prepare the food myself. I had not spent much time in Italy at that point, and I had never been to Sicily. I ordered a dozen cookbooks, some Italian, mostly Sicilian. I set out to create some of the favored family dishes I had heard my husband talk about but had never tasted myself. The meal was a great success.
I loved all of the books that inspired the menu for our wedding feast. But one book stood out: a Sicilian cookbook from a restaurant kitchen called La Cucina Siciliana di Gangivecchio. Gangivecchio Restaurant and Inn was located in central Sicily in a small medieval village called Gangi. In the 14th century, a Benedictine monastery was built on a hill there. Much later, the monastery was transformed into a renowned restaurant Inn called, Gangivecchio, or old Gangi.
While I never made it to this award-winning restaurant before it closed, I always wanted to go back and discover more recipes from their beloved and inspirational book. The recipe I’m sharing today is a stellar example of their wizardry at creating gorgeous dishes from local ingredients with sophisticated flavors and textures. Buon appetito!
Casarecce con Frutta Secca
“Casarecce with Nut Pesto Sauce”
Casarecce pronounced [cah-sah-ret-chee], is an extremely popular Sicilian pasta shape. Made of durum wheat and water, small rectangles of dough are rolled from each end around a thin metal pin, resulting in a twin tube shape. It is the perfect pasta for sauce because it is somewhat grainy, and all the nooks and crannies allow for lots of sauce to get stuck in place. This is basically a pasta with pesto sauce recipe. However, the pesto is incredibly special and sometimes a bit labor-intensive. Instead of the traditional pine nut/pignoli, this pesto recipe requires five nuts: pinenut, walnut, pistachio, hazelnut, and almond. The nuts need to be peeled of their skins and very lightly toasted to bring out their full flavor. This family recipe came from the generations of chefs at Gangivechhio restaurant, which is now permanently closed. The nonnas of the family insisted that each nut was ground separately for this pesto; they were also ground by hand in a mortar and pestle. At least the last generation of the family finally used a food processor to prepare this recipe, as did I.
Makes 8 to 12 servings (as a side dish or an entrée)
Ingredients
1⁄2 cup almonds, skinned and lightly toasted
1⁄2 cup hazelnuts, skinned and lightly toasted
1⁄2 cup walnuts, lightly toasted
1⁄2 cup pistachio nuts, lightly toasted
1⁄2 cup pine nuts, lightly toasted
6 medium garlic cloves, peeled
2 cups fresh basil leaves
1⁄2 cup freshly chopped arugula (or Italian parsley)
1 cup freshly grated Pecorino cheese
3⁄4 cup extra virgin olive oil, or as needed
2 pounds dried casarecce* (or gemelli or penne)
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
Salt and freshly ground pepper
*Casarecce is an extremely popular pasta shape in Sicily. It is a twin-twisted short-shaped pasta piece, but gemelli, penne, or any other similar-size pasta can be used.
Instructions
Put all the ingredients, except the olive oil, pasta, and butter, in the bowl of a food processor.
Turn on the machine and immediately pour olive oil through the feed tube in a slow steady stream. The mixture should be a thick, creamy, and spreadable consistency. Add a little extra olive oil if necessary. Do not over purée the sauce. It should remain grainy in nature. Transfer the pesto sauce to a 3-quart saucepan or heatproof bowl and set aside. There will be about 4 cups of pesto.
Bring 6 quarts of water boil in a large pot. Add 1 tablespoon salt, stir again, and add the pasta. Cook until al dente or just tender, stirring often. Cook for approximately 11 minutes or according to package directions. Before draining, remove and reserve 2 cups of hot pasta water. Set aside. Drain the pasta and transfer to a large bowl.
Meanwhile, add the butter and 1 cup of the hot pasta water to the nut sauce, and thoroughly combine. Reserve the remaining cup of pasta water.
Add sauce to the pasta and toss well. If the sauce is too thick, you can add part or all of the remaining hot pasta water by the spoonful. Serve hot, garnished with basil leaves. Pass additional cheese and ground pepper if desired.
