Recipes
How to make Trapani-style pesto
In some areas of Sicily they call it agghiata, but it is better known as Trapanese pesto: here is the recipe!
Today we are preparing the recipe for Trapanese pesto, a typical sauce from the city of Trapani and all of western Sicily. Its history is ancient, and its name, in fact, is not at all random: it seems that it was the Genoese ships that stopped in the port of Trapani that brought the traditional pesto recipe here, then reworked by the inhabitants with products typical Sicilian .
Its delicate and fresh flavor makes it suitable for any type of pasta, especially in summer, but for a 100% Sicilian dish try it with busiate.
How to make Trapani-style pesto: the original recipe
To prepare this sauce you would need a mortar, but you can get equally excellent results with a simple food processor or immersion blender.
- Before starting, you need to gently and carefully wash the basil leaves and lay them out to dry on a cloth.
- Tomatoes must also be washed and peeled carefully. You can do it patiently by hand or cut the skin and immerse them in boiling water for a few seconds and then peel them later, just as indicated in our guide on how to peel tomatoes . Once this is done, cut them in half and remove the water and seeds .
- In the meantime, it is advisable to put the chopper blades in the fridge to avoid oxidising the basil during preparation.
- Now that all the components of the pesto are ready, all that remains is to begin: put the almonds and the peeled and cored garlic in the blender and reduce everything into a coarse powder. Remember that Trapanese pesto is not smooth but rather rustic .
- Then add the peeled tomatoes, basil and a pinch of salt and blend everything until you obtain a smooth but rustic consistency.
- Add the grated cheese and add as much oil as needed to obtain a creamy consistency.
Precisely because of its simplicity, it is also possible to make Trapani-style pesto with the Thermomix . This way you will be sure to obtain a perfect consistency. But what is the best way to enjoy it? Definitely the pasta : consider that the busiate with Trapani-style pesto have been included among the Traditional Sicilian Agri-Food Products .
If you want to try your hand at the mortar, here is a video where you can see all the ingredients of Trapani pesto worked by hand until the right consistency is obtained.
storage
Trapanese pesto can be kept for about 4-5 days in the refrigerator. We remind you that it is best to add a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil to the jar until it completely covers the pesto, this way it will last longer. We do not recommend freezing in the freezer.
Read also
Sicilian pesto
Origins of Trapani-style pesto
As previously mentioned, the birth of Trapani-style (or Sicilian) pesto has ancient origins that can be traced back to the city of Trapani: in ancient times famous for its port where the exchange of goods, tradition and culture was almost inevitable as it was a meeting place for boats arriving from all over the Mediterranean (and beyond).
Here the sailors from Trapani came into contact with Genoese products for the first time and it seems that Genoese garlic sauce was the protagonist sauce of this story. The Genoese Agliata was in fact personalized by the Sicilians, until it became the red pesto now famous throughout the Bel Paese. This sauce, in fact, in dialect is called agghiata trapanisa or pasta cu l'agghia to indicate how fundamental garlic is in the creation of the recipe.
Trapani red pesto was combined with pasta , in particular with busiate : a typical format of the area which resembles a rolled tagliatelle perfect for collecting all the sauce (also in this case the history of the product is very interesting to know, demonstrating how much the food is linked to the culture of the area and the habits of its inhabitants). Not only that, it is also the perfect condiment for gnoccoli , a pasta shape about 15 cm long and half a centimeter wide, hollowed out by hand with your fingers.
Trapani pesto is so good and versatile that it can even be served as an appetizer or aperitif on bruschetta.
Typical ingredients for preparing Sicilian pesto
The local products of Trapani were and still are the basis for this sauce: red garlic from Nubia is used as well as the typical Pizzutelli tomatoes . These two basic ingredients are accompanied by DOP extra virgin olive oil from the Trapani valleys, salt (which traditionally came from the salt pans of Trapani and Paceco), Erice almonds and basil could not be missing (another basic ingredient handed down by sailors Ligurians).
A widely used variant of this sauce involves the addition of a little tuna in oil (about 200 g will be enough compared to the basic recipe just described). Trapani-style pesto pasta with tuna is even tastier: all you have to do is shred the well-drained tuna into the pesto, mix everything well and use it as a condiment.
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