Good morning, Darling!
I hope you have had yet another good week and you are keen to dedicate some time for yourself today. And hopefully for pasta making, or really anything that makes your life just a bit sweeter.
I am going for pasta and peas today. The inspiration behind this pesto sauce is my personal craving for something a bit more light and bright as the spring starts to show it’s true colours.
PEA AND DILL PESTO
2 portions
This traditional Puglian pea-pod looking fresh pasta shape called cicatelli just calls for those juicy green goodies. Just as much as I am influenced by the shape of the pasta itself, I am revealing my cravings that are true to my roots by adding dill to my pea pesto. The combination of these two take me instantly back to my grandparent’s farm on a early summer day, and nothing beats the (bitter)sweetness of that. This sauce makes me feel light like a summer, and takes me home.
Italians love peas too, but they’d make a side dish with added pancetta (and sometimes parmesan), which is a luscious marriage of ingredients too.
TIME
10 minutes toast pine nuts
10 minutes to prepare to boil the pasta water and prepare the pesto ingredients
5 minutes to make the pesto, cook the pasta and mix it for serving
MISE EN PLACE kitchen scale, food processor, spatula, medium bowl for mixing, pasta cooking pot, ladle, grater for cheese, slotted spoon, chopping board, kitchen knife
INGREDIENTS
200 g petit pois (frozen and defrosted) or fresh peas (blanched)
20 g parmesan
20 g pine nuts
30 g extra virgin olive oil
7 g parsley
12 g dill
5 g garlic
lemon zest and juice
2 grams salt
2 grams pepper
MAKING IT
Gather all your equipment, mise en place.
Heat up the oven to 160 degrees Celcius and roast pine nuts until they are golden and the room smells of sweet nuts. Let them cool.
Prepare peas, peel and cut garlic into smaller pieces. Zest the lemon. Grate parmesan.
Put all ingredients in a food processor at once. You can control by pulsing it what kind of texture you are after. I quite like it chunky, but if you don’t have a short pasta, and you would serve it with fettucine or spaghetti, I’d go for a silkier version of that pesto.
Mix freshly boiled pasta with the pesto in a bowl and serve immediately with extra serving of parmesan, a bit of extra virgin olive oil and fresh pepper.
P.S. This pea and dill pesto makes such a nice spread for toast too.
TWO AND THREE FINGER CICATELLI
PASTA OF THE WEEK
Cicatelli pasta is one of many traditional pasta shapes from Puglia. The elongated, rustic shape is traditionally made by rolling small pieces of dough with the fingers across a table.
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