Toni's Sundried Tomato and Pistacchio Sauce
Toni's Tuscany meets Sicily Sauce
- 200-300grams of pasta, spaghetti or penne rigate work well with this sauce.
- Approx.20 sun-dried Pacchino tomatoes, or 10 sun-dried San Marzano tomatoes
- 3-5 ripe tomatoes, cubed
- 1/2 clove of garlic, remove middle "anima" (the root in the middle!)
- 1 ounce pecorino toscano, semi stagionato (***Do not use pecorino Romano!)
- 1 handful of pistachios 5 leaves of fresh basil olive oil (cheap extra virgin, not Tuscan)
- Optional: dash of hot pepper flakes
These measurements serve 2-3 people.
First, prepare the sun dried tomatoes. Rinse the salt off! Soak in tepid water for 15 minutes and rinse again! Now, chop up the rinsed sun-dried tomatoes.
In a food processor, chop: Pistachios (if they are salty, rinse off the salt!) Pecorino cheese Basil Set this aside.
In a deep frying pan: Heat olive oil and add garlic (and hot pepper flakes if you plan to use them). Before the garlic can burn, add in all sun-dried tomatoes and after about a minute also add in cubed fresh tomatoes. Allow tomatoes to soften and melt into the oil, over a low flame.
Add in 1/2 of the pistachio/cheese/basil, and allow it to melt into the tomato sauce as it continues to cook... Turn the flame off when the sauce has a nice creamy/chunky consistency (when the fresh tomatoes have melded into the sauce!) At this point, if you want the sauce a little thinner, creamier, more abundant because an extra person shows up at the last minute, etc: add a little milk and continue to cook on a low flames, stirring often.
In the meantime, put on the water to boil for pasta. Add about 1 tsp of sea salt to the water when it comes to a boil. Boil the pasta (100 grams per person) for a little less than recommended time on the box (ex: if it says 10 minutes, boil for 8 minutes and drain asap). Turn the heat back on under sauce pan and throw in the drained pasta. Finish cooking it in the sauce! Serve the pasta which is already dressed in the sauce and garnish it with the other 1/2 of the pistachio/basil/pecorino mix.
Buon appetito!
