Sicilian Tomato and Almond Pesto Pasta

Pesto alla Trapanese - a Sicilian Tomato and Almond Pesto - is delicious folded through pasta for a speedy late summer dinner when you've got tomatoes in abundance. Also, made creamy with almonds not pecorino, it is happily vegan without any omissions or substitutions!

📝 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. 1Cook 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. 2Meanwhile, 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. 3Roughly chop and add the basil, pounding again until you’ve lost most of the chunks to the mixture.
4. 4Finely 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. 5Stir 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. 6Drain the cooked pasta well before stirring through the pesto. Top each bowl with panagratto and a generous drizzle of olive oil.