Homemade walnut sauce

Walnut sauce is a sauce from the ancient Ligurian tradition, ideal for seasoning first courses such as pansoti, trofie or corzetti. Here is the recipe with the mortar and the more modern one with the mixer.

Today we are preparing a fabulous walnut sauce, a typical Ligurian condiment also known as sarsa de noxe or touchscreen in local dialect. This cream is very easy to make, and it is so appetizing that you can even enjoy it simply on slices of bread, perhaps combining it with fresh cheese.

Walnut sauce is one of the typical recipes of the Ligurian tradition: its intense and creamy flavor vaguely resembles that of pesto, also produced with dried fruit, namely pine nuts. Being able to prepare a walnut sauce that has a delicate and non-nauseating flavor is not very easy, but thanks to our advice you will discover how to do it. Let's find out how to prepare Genoese walnut sauce with the original recipe.

How to make walnut sauce with the original recipe

1. Take a pan full of water, boil it and when it has reached the right temperature, add the walnut kernels. With this step you can eliminate the bitter taste given by the skin. After 5 minutes, drain the walnuts, remove the skin and leave them to dry . If you use already cleaned kernels you can skip this boring step.
2. In the meantime, soak the bread in milk and, after about 10 minutes, squeeze it well.
3. Place the breadcrumbs in a mixer with the cheese, walnuts, pine nuts and garlic, which you must have removed the core first.
4. Blend everything and gradually add the olive oil, which will make the sauce creamy. To adjust the consistency, add what is left of the milk.
5. Be careful at this stage to balance all the ingredients well: if you want a denser consistency you can add more cheese, otherwise oil or milk.
6. Taste the sauce to get a perfect taste. When the walnut cream has reached the desired consistency , turn off the blender.

Here is a video where you can see all the steps. As you can see, the final consistency is rustic, just as if it were handmade.

This no-cook sauce is perfect for seasoning all the first courses you desire but the perfect match is with those typical of Liguria such as pansoti in walnut sauce , trofie (with chestnut ones it really is the death of it) and corzetti .

How to make walnut pesto with a mortar

If you want to prepare this dish as it once was , using the strength of your hands and arms, we recommend using a simple mortar. To prepare the walnut sauce without a mixer, soak the bread in milk, squeeze it and set everything aside.

In the mortar, finely crush all the dry ingredients, adding only the squeezed bread, milk and oil slowly. Be careful when adding the liquid ingredients: add little at a time so as to mix everything well and avoid the risk of splattering or obtaining a sauce that is too liquid.

Walnut sauce: tips and other variations

Depending on taste, two manufacturing processes can be followed for walnut kernels. If you don't like the bitter taste of walnuts you can soak them in boiling water for about an hour. Then peel them one by one manually so as to remove the skin. However, if the taste of walnuts doesn't bother you, you can skip this step. You can also toast walnuts and pine nuts in a pan for a few minutes to intensify the flavor.

Some people like to flavor the walnut sauce with an aromatic herb typical of Ligurian cuisine, marjoram . If you don't like it you can omit it or replace it with fennel or parsley .

The walnut sauce is prepared strictly without cream, although it is difficult to believe given that all the products on the market include it. The key to obtaining a creamy pesto is to add the milk left over from soaking the bread which, together with the oil, will create a sort of emulsion.

Finally, one of the ingredients you need to pay attention to when choosing is the oil: use exclusively extra virgin olive oil, Ligurian olive oil is ideal. Some recipes then include the addition of prescinseua , a typical cheese from the area, useful for making the consistency more creamy and homogeneous.

Conservation

The walnut sauce can be stored in the fridge for up to a week by covering everything with a drizzle of oil or it can be frozen for a couple of months.

History and origin

Walnut sauce today is a pride of Ligurian cuisine but what is its history? It seems that the ancestor was a sauce of Persian origin that arrived on the coasts of Liguria together with traders. Walnuts were already present in the area and in all likelihood it was the skilled hand of Ligurian housewives who gave life to this full-bodied sauce.

We have given you a recipe but as always when it comes to tradition, know that it is not the only one. The bread crumb itself is an ingredient that appears and disappears depending on the period. In Giovan Battista Ratto's Cuciniera Genovese , printed in 1893, the bread is omitted and pine nuts are added to make the flavor of the pesto more delicate.

Today walnut pesto has been included among the Traditional Agri-Food Products (PAT) by the Ministry of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policies.

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