Sicilian Tomato and Almond Pesto Pasta

Ingredients

• 25 g whole blanched almonds
• 1 small garlic clove
• 10 g fresh basil leaves
• 140 g ripe tomatoes
• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
• sea salt and black pepper, to taste
• 200 g pasta, to serve
• pangrattato, to serve

Instructions

1. 1

   Cook the pasta as per the packets instructions in a pan of boiling, salted water. I usually start checking for doneness around the 12 minute mark.

2. 2

   Meanwhile, peel and roughly chop the garlic clove and pound it in the mortar and pestle until none of the almonds are whole and you can no longer discern the garlic pieces.

3. 3

   Roughly chop and add the basil, pounding again until you’ve lost most of the chunks to the mixture.

4. 4

   Finely chop the tomatoes (this way you don’t need to take the skins off), discarding any wet chunks of seed. Again, pound into the pesto until roughly smooth.

5. 5

   Stir in the olive oil, and season the pesto to taste with salt and pepper. Don’t skip the pepper, I tried it during testing and my pesto always tasted flat without it!

6. 6

   Drain the cooked pasta well before stirring through the pesto. Top each bowl with panagratto and a generous drizzle of olive oil.