Pesto alla Trapanese

(Sicilian Pesto With

Almonds and
Tomatoes) Recipe
This alternative pesto uses fruity tomatoes for
a perfect summer pasta.

by Daniel Gritzer
Updated March 10, 2023

R AT I N G : 22 PRINT

FILED UNDER:
PESTO I TA L I A N ALMONDS

S PA G H E T T I , B U C AT I N I , & L I N G U I N E

PA S TA M A I N S

[Image: Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik]

IN THIS RECIPE

How to Make the Pesto

Finishing the Dish

WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS

● A mortar and pestle crushes the
sauce's ingredients, releasing their
flavor more fully than the chopping
action of a blade in a food processor.
● Finishing the pasta off the heat
preserves the fresh, uncooked flavor
of the sauce.

E
veryone knows pesto, the bright-
green basil and pine nut sauce from
the Liguria region of Italy. But what many
don't realize is that pesto comes from the
word for "crushed" in Italian—as in, crushed
to a paste with a mortar and pestle—and
there are other pesto sauces out there. The
second most famous pesto sauce in Italy?
It's arguably pesto alla trapanese, the
version made in the Sicilian city of Trapani.
It has a lot in common with the Ligurian
pesto—it's rich with nuts, basil, olive oil,
garlic, and cheese. But the nuts are
almonds, not pine nuts, and there's an
additional ingredient that transforms the
sauce into something even lighter and more
refreshing: tomatoes.
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It's quite possible that the similarities

between the deep-green pesto of Liguria
and this creamy Sicilian one with a pinkish
tinge aren't accidental. Most accounts claim
that centuries ago, sailors from Genoa, the
capital city of Liguria, would stop in port
cities like Trapani during their voyages, and
share their recipes while there. The sauces
indeed have enough in common to make
this story more than plausible.
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But it's still important to remember that

sauces pounded with a mortar and pestle
predate recorded history, so there's a good
chance the Sicilians were already making
something at least somewhat similar before
the sailors of Genoa ever landed there. After
all, they had the garlic, the cheese, the
basil, and the almonds; surely those
ingredients had been pounded together in
some combination at one point or another.
Once tomatoes arrived from the New World
in the late 15th century, it was only natural
they'd get tossed into the mortar as well.

Like Genoese pesto, pesto alla trapanese

is a fresh pasta sauce, and you want to keep
it that way. That means that instead
of finishing the pasta in the sauce over heat,
as we do with most pasta dishes, these
pestos need to be tossed with the pasta
(and some of the starchy pasta water) off
the heat. This coats the pasta in the sauce
and forms a creamy emulsion, but avoids
giving it a cooked flavor.

As mentioned above, this sauce is

traditionally made using a mortar and
pestle, and, as my own pesto tests have
shown, that really is the superior tool to use
for such sauces; crushing the ingredients,
instead of chopping them, creates a sauce
with better texture and flavor. That's the
ideal, but, of course, our lives don't always
allow for that. Sometimes we're short on
time. Sometimes we're tired. Sometimes our
arm is in a cast for six weeks (or maybe
that's just me?Y. When we can't put in the
elbow grease, blitzing everything in a food
processor is just fine.

Making the Pesto

When working with a mortar and pestle, the
goal is to crush everything up, mashing the
garlic, almonds, and basil to a paste. The
almonds should be blanched, meaning their
skins should be removed. You can buy
already-blanched almonds and save
yourself the trouble, or you can blanch them
yourself at home. It's an easy process that
involves soaking the nuts for a few minutes
in boiling water, then slipping off the skins.
If you can find them, Sicilian almonds, such
as the pizzuta d'Avola variety, are a great
choice here. They have a more bitter and
intense, fruity, cherry-pit flavor that lends a
lot more character to the sauce.
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[Image: Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik]

Once the base paste is made, you can begin

to pound in the basil leaves. Almost every
recipe I've seen, including many from Italian
and Sicilian sources, call for basil, with the
option of tossing in a mint leaf or two (either
directly in the paste or as a garnish on top
of the pasta). Strangely, Marcella Hazan, in
her book Marcella Says... at Amazon, writes
that the correct herb in Trapanese pesto is
mint, but she is the only source I've been
able to find, in either English or Italian, to
claim this. I'm sticking with basil (with a
couple optional mint leaves tossed in), since
that's what everyone else uses, but if you
want to try the sauce as she does, entirely
with mint, there's no harm in playing around.
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[Image: Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik]

After that, in go the tomatoes, which should

be peeled and seeded first. The flesh alone
adds quite a bit of moisture to the sauce, so
seeds would make it downright watery. To
finish the sauce, work in some olive oil and
grated cheese. The cheese is traditionally a
pecorino, but Pecorino Romano is really too
salty and spicy for this sauce. Since that's
the most commonly available pecorino
cheese, your next best option is to use a
50/50 blend of Romano and Parmigiano-
Reggiano, the latter of which will help soften
the pecorino's sharp edges.
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Finishing the Dish

To finish, cook the pasta, then toss it into a
large serving bowl with most of the sauce,
adding some of the starchy pasta water to
help emulsify everything and prevent it from
becoming too dry. You can always hit the
pasta with more olive oil and fresh cheese,
plus another spoonful or two of sauce on
top.
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[Image: Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik]

To be honest, between the classic Ligurian

pesto and this one, I'd pick Trapanese pesto
any day. It has all the same herbal and nutty
flavors, but they're tempered by the fresh
and fruity tomato. This is my ideal
summertime pesto, and maybe this summer
it'll become yours, too.

[Image: Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik]

F I R S T P U B L I S H E D J U LY 2 0 1 8

RECIPE DETAILS

Pesto alla Trapanese

(Sicilian Pesto With
Almonds and
Tomatoes) Recipe
Prep 15 mins
Cook 15 mins
Active 30 mins
Total 30 mins
Serves 4 servings

This alternative pesto uses fruity tomatoes for

a perfect summer pasta.

Save Print

Ingredients

● 3 medium cloves garlic

● Kosher salt

● 2 ounces toasted blanched almonds (60g;

about 1/2 cup); (see note)

● 35 large basil leaves (about 4 sprigs,

weighing 25g total)

● 2 to 4 mint leaves (optional)

● 3 1/2 ounces (100g) grated cheese,

preferably a milder aged pecorino or a
50/50 mix of Pecorino Romano and
Parmigiano-Reggiano, plus more for serving

● 1 pound (450g) plum tomatoes, peeled and

seeded

● 1/4 cup (60ml) extra-virgin olive oil, plus

more as needed

● 1 pound (450g) linguine

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Directions

1. If Using a Mortar and Pestle: Crush the

garlic in the mortar with a pinch of salt to
form a paste. Add almonds and beat and
crush into a rough paste. Work in basil
leaves and mint (if using), pounding and
crushing into tiny bits. Smash in cheese,
followed by tomatoes and olive oil. The
final sauce should be a rough paste.
Season with salt.

[Image: Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik]

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2. If Using a Food Processor: Pulse garlic

with almonds until roughly chopped. Add
basil, mint (if using), cheese, tomatoes,
and olive oil and process to a rough
paste. Season with salt.

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3. Transfer 2/3 of the sauce to a large

heatproof serving bowl.

4. In a pot of salted boiling water, cook

linguine until al dente. Transfer pasta to
serving bowl, reserving some of the
pasta-cooking water. Toss well, adding
more olive oil and pasta-cooking water,
one tablespoon at a time each, until a
creamy sauce forms that's not dry but
also not soupy. Season with salt, if
needed. If the sauce gets too dry at any
point, simply add more pasta-cooking
water to loosen it.

[Image: Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik]

5. Serve, spooning remaining sauce on top

of each portion and adding more cheese
as desired.

Special Equipment
Mortar and pestle or food processor

Notes
If you can find them, pizzuta d'Avola
almonds from Sicily are an excellent choice
here, adding a slightly bitter, more aromatic
flavor to the sauce.

Read More
● The Best Pesto alla Genovese iClassic
Basil Pesto Sauce)
● How to Blanch Almonds
● The Best Ways to Peel and Dice
Tomatoes | Knife Skills

N U T R I T I O N FACTS
(PER SERVING)

512 30g
CALORIES FAT

45g 19g
CARBS PROTEIN

Show Full Nutrition Label

iNutrition information is calculated using an
ingredient database and should be considered
an estimate.)

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