Pasta alla Trapanese

I came across this dish whilst watching Rick Stein's Long Weekend when he visited Palermo in Sicily. It uses a pesto sauce made with toasted almonds instead of pine nuts and some chopped tomatoes thrown into the mix. Delicious is an understatement.

Ingredients
serves 4

400g pasta, Busiate or Fusilli Bucati /Lunghi or any other long spiral shape pasta

for the pesto alla Trapanese
50g almonds, blanched and skinned
50g fresh basil leaves
2 garlic cloves
6 ripe tomatoes (about 700g)  peeled, deseeded and chopped
2 tbsp Vegetarian Italian Hard Cheese, finely grated (pecorino)
6 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
salt
freshly ground black pepper

Method

Begin by removing the skin from the almonds by placing them in a bowl and soaking them in boiling water for a minute or two. The skin should loosen and be fairly easy to peel with your fingers.

Then bring a pan of water to a boil. Cut a small cross into the skin of the tomatoes and drop them into the water. After a minute or two the skin will begin to peel. Remove from the water, allow to cool slightly and peel all the skin off.  Roughly chop the tomatoes.

Dry the almonds and toast them in a dry non-stick frying pan until the begin to colour.

In a food processor blitz the almonds, basil and garlic with a pinch of salt into a thick paste. Add the olive oil to loosen it up a little.

Pour the pesto into a bowl and add the grated cheese and chopped tomatoes.  Stir together and set aside.

Boil the pasta as per the instructions, erring on the side of being very al dente.  Drain the pasta.

Taste the pesto and season with some pepper and a little salt if needed.  I tend to bring it to the the edge of being too salty as it will be diluted when mixed with the pasta and a little cooking water.

Reserve a tablespoon or two of the pesto before adding the rest to the pasta. Add a splash of the cooking water if it needs to be loosened up a little or some more olive oil.

Add some olive oil to the reserved pesto to thin it out.

Serve the Pasta alla Trapanese in a bowl with a spoonful of the extra pesto on top.