Pesto has a Sicilian cousin, and it's red. In Trapani, at the far end of the island, you don't pound pine nuts and basil alone: you crush ripe tomatoes, blanched almonds, basil, garlic, pecorino and olive oil — raw, in a mortar. It's the sun and the almond in place of pine nuts, the tomato in place of the Ligurian green. Nothing cooks but the pasta: pound, toss, serve. The result is dense, fragrant, just tart from the tomato, rounded by the almond.
For busy nights we put it in a jar without betraying it: our Madre Terra Pesto Trapanese keeps the real almond and real tomato for a true trapanese in ten minutes, the time it takes to cook the bronze-cut busiate from Libera Terra — the coiled Sicilian pasta that wraps this sauce — or, failing that, spaghetti. Organic, grown on land returned to farming in southern Italy, their rough surface holds the pesto like no smooth pasta can. And because it's a raw pesto, we finish it with chopped toasted almonds, basil, a little pecorino and a drizzle of raw olive oil. A useful note: this isn't the green pesto genovese — it's Sicily's pesto rosso, another story in the same word. Below, both routes: the raw recipe, and the jar shortcut.
Ingredients
- 400 g Libera Terra busiate (or spaghetti)
- 200 g ripe, fragrant tomatoes, skinned and seeded
- 80 g blanched almonds, plus a handful to finish
- 1 large bunch of fresh basil
- 1 garlic clove
- 50 g grated pecorino, plus a little to serve
- 6 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, plus a drizzle to serve
- salt
Method
- Bring a large pot of water to the boil and salt generously. Cook the busiate (or spaghetti) al dente per the packet time.
- Meanwhile, toast the almonds dry in a pan over medium heat for 2-3 minutes, until fragrant. Set a handful aside to finish.
- In a mortar or blender, pound the garlic with a pinch of salt, add the toasted almonds and basil, then the skinned tomatoes. Work to a coarse paste, without smoothing it completely.
- Stir in the pecorino and the olive oil in a stream until you have a supple, glossy pesto. Taste and adjust the salt. Don't heat it: trapanese is made raw.
- Before draining, reserve a ladle of pasta water. Tip the drained pasta into a large bowl (off the heat), add the pesto and a little pasta water, and toss vigorously for 1 minute to coat every piece.
- Serve at once with the chopped toasted almonds, a few basil leaves, a little pecorino and a final drizzle of raw olive oil.
The move that changes everything: never heat pesto trapanese. It's a raw sauce — you loosen the hot pasta with a little pasta water, off the heat, and it's that residual warmth that wakes the sauce up. On the heat, the basil blackens, the almond turns, the oil splits. Raw, everything stays bright and fragrant. In a hurry? Skip steps 2 to 4 and open a jar of Madre Terra Pesto Trapanese instead while the pasta cooks: the same almonds, the same tomato, without the mortar — just loosen it with a little pasta water before tossing.
More: trapanese is the summer pesto par excellence — the one you make when tomatoes are at their ripest and you don't want to cook a thing. The Madre Terra Pesto Trapanese and the Libera Terra busiate make the dish between them; keep the olive oil within reach, it's what binds it.
Discover the Madre Terra Pesto TrapaneseFrequently asked
Pesto trapanese or pesto genovese?
They're two different pestos, from the two ends of Italy. Genovese is Ligurian: basil, pine nuts, parmesan, green. Trapanese is Sicilian: almonds, ripe tomatoes, basil, pecorino — red-pink, and rounder thanks to the almond. If you're after "red pesto" or "Sicilian pesto", this is the one. Our Madre Terra Pesto Trapanese is the Sicilian version, in a jar.
Which pasta for trapanese?
In Trapani it's busiate — the coiled pasta that wraps the sauce in its spirals. Failing that, spaghetti does the job nicely. Either way, a bronze-cut Libera Terra pasta: its rough surface holds the pesto, where a smooth pasta lets it slide off.
Jar or homemade?
Both are real. The raw, mortar-pounded recipe for the pleasure of the gesture on a night you have time and good tomatoes; the Madre Terra Pesto Trapanese for busy nights — same almonds, same tomato, ready in the time the pasta cooks. Either way, don't heat it.