Sicilian Pesto Recipes

Daniel joined the Serious Eats culinary team in 2014 and writes recipes, equipment reviews, articles on cooking techniques. Prior to that he was a food editor at Food & Wine magazine, and the staff writer for Time Out New York's restaurant and bars section.

Everyone 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.

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.

Recipe: Penne Rigate With Sicilian Pesto

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 isa fresh pasta sauce, and you want to keep it that way. That means that instead offinishing 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?). When we can't put in the elbow grease, blitzing everything in a food processor is just fine.

Sicilian Sun Dried Tomato Pesto Penne Recipe

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.

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 bookMarcella 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.

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.

Sicilian Pesto — Lemon In Ginger

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.

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.

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.

Bucatini With Sicilian Pesto Recipe

*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2, 000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.

When you visit the site, Dotdash Meredith and its partners may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. Cookies collect information about your preferences and your devices and are used to make the site work as you expect it to, to understand how you interact with the site, and to show advertisements that are targeted to your interests. You can find out more about our use, change your default settings, and withdraw your consent at any time with effect for the future by visiting Cookies Settings, which can also be found in the footer of the site.Pesto alla Trapanese is a delicious Sicilian pesto made with almonds, fresh tomatoes, basil, garlic and Pecorino cheese. It's super easy to make and perfect tossed with pasta for a quick and delicious weeknight meal!

If you're a fan of Ligurian Basil Pesto you're going to LOVE Pesto alla Trapanese. It comes from Trapani, Sicily and is packed with flavour from fresh tomatoes, nuts, cheese, garlic and basil.

Sicilian Pesto Pasta With Fried Capers

It makes the most delicious, quick and easy pasta sauce but can be used in so many other ways from dips, tossed in salads, spread on crostini and more.

Better yet, it can be ready in 10 minutes or less! See the easy step by step recipe below with photos, tips and video tutorial, enjoy!

Bring a small pot of water to a boil. Meanwhile cut a small X at the bottom of each tomato, once the water is boiling add the tomatoes and boil for 1-2 minutes until you see the skins cracking

Sicilian Almond Tomato Pesto

Drain the tomatoes and set them aside to cool for a few minutes then peel off all the skins and squeeze each tomato to remove the seeds and juice, set aside (photos 5 & 6).

Add the prepared tomatoes, almonds, pecorino, garlic and basil to a food processor and blitz to a fine pesto consistency, you can also use an immersion blender for this (photos 7 & 8).

Boil the pasta until al dente and reserve 1 cup of pasta water. Drain the rest of the pasta and add it back to the pot. Add the Pesto alla Trapanese to the pot and use the pasta water a little at a time to mix it through so it coats the pasta evenly (you won’t need all of the water).

Sicilian Pesto Pasta (pesto Alla Siciliana)

You can use this Sicilian pesto in any way you'd use basil pesto. The most common way to use it is to toss it through pasta for a quick and flavorful sauce but you can spread it on crostini and top with cured meats and cheese, toss it with salad, use it as a dip with some Grissini - Italian Breadsticks, use it in sandwiches, the list is endless!

Yes, otherwise the pesto will be too wet and will have a gritty texture. Blanching tomatoes takes only 1 minute then the skins peel off with ease.

Of course, traditionally the pesto is made in a mortar and pestle so you can use that until you reach the desired consistency.

Sicilian Pesto Pasta Recipe

If you’ve tried this Pesto alla Trapanese or any other recipe on the blog then don’t forget to rate the recipe and let me know how you got on