The last time I went to Italy was in 2008. We went during summer, so we also went to Sicily to spend some time at the seaside in a small village called San Vito Lo Capo (Wiki). Our eldest daughter was 1 year old then and Clint and I could finally leave her with my parents to get some time as a “couple” again and go out for dinner or a walk etc. It was lovely. One of the restaurants where we had dinner was called Syrah. The food was really good and Clint had some fantastic pasta: busiati with pancetta, clams, shrimp and pistachio pesto. A very interesting and unusual combination of ingredients, but the flavour was perfect. When we came back to Australia I set on a mission to try and replicate it. I have to admit I am not a big fan of shrimp and it is very hard to find clams/vongole near where we live. So, I decided to slightly adapt the original recipe and after various attempts, I came up with this recipe that I think is just right, and Clint loves it more than the original! I substituted pancetta with speck and removed clams and shrimp. You can make it with any pasta, but I usually find these fantastic strozzapreti at the shops and they are quite similar to busiati. If you are up for it, you can surely make busiati by hand, here is my tutorial.
Ingredients for 4 persons:
50 gms Italian speck, thinly sliced
6-7 cherry tomatoes, halved
2 tbsp of tomato puree
4 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil
1 small clove of garlic
3 tbsp of unsalted pistachios
Salt to taste
Parmigiano Reggiano or Grana Padano thinly grated to serve
400 gms of strozzapreti or busiati
Cut the slices of speck into 3 cm squares and put them in a frying pan with 1 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil. Let it fry on a low fire for a couple of minutes. Then add the halved cherry tomatoes, the tomato puree and 3 tbsp of water. Let the sauce cook for 5 minutes on a slow fire. Then put the fire off and keep it aside.
In the meantime prepare the pistachio pesto. Put the pistachios, garlic, 1 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil and 1 pinch of salt in a mixer and blend them together until you obtain a paste. Keep it aside.
Cook the strozzapreti or busiati following the steps on How to cook pasta “al dente” in the Techniques page of this site, but drain it 1 minute before it is fully cooked as it will finish cooking together with the sauce. Before draining the pasta, put 2 tbsp of the pasta water in the tomato sauce. Put the drained pasta in the frying pan with the tomato and speck sauce, add the pistachio pesto and 2 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil.
Mix well while cooking it on a slow flame for 1 or 2 minutes.
Serve with thinly grated Parmigiano Reggiano on the top.
On another note… I will be “offline” for a few days. We’ll be heading off to New Zealand’s North Island for a few days of R&R… no computer allowed! Just thought I’d mention it, as I won’t be able to come by your blogs and comment on your yummy posts as usual. I’ll catch up with everything once I am back: promise! Hopefully I’ll come back with some nice shots and good stories to share. If you see some new posts of mine while I’m gone, it’s because I have scheduled them to publish automatically… enjoy them and your Easter break! <3
Mouthwatering recipe manu:). i think pasta give nice aroma and taste also, looks lovely.
Ohhh this just look so mouth watering delicious 🙂 It’s sound flavourful and healthy, too 🙂
Looks great! Will have to try something similar (no speck here!)
I haven’t tried strozzapreti nor speck…but your pictures give me the assurance that this pasta dish is perfect!
una versione un po’ insolita del pesto trapanese. Squisiti i pistacchi 🙂
THIS looks yummy. I have never seen strozzapreti before, and it looks so unique! The sauce will go inside the pasta and oh yummy. You haven’t gone home for a while now. You must be missing home. 🙁
Never had pistachio pesto before. What an amazing, mouth watering recipe. Thanks for sharing this Manu.
This is so cool, interesting and beautiful dish Manuela. I love all the colors and ingredients that you used..just stunning meal!!!
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What a fabulous dish…I adore all these flavors!
I see Sandra beat me here to tag you…but now you’ve been double tagged~
you do know how much I love pasta 🙂 I always looking for different variety of sauce and diff kind of pasta. This is a brilliant dish. I am not sure if I will find speck but i can try with pancetta ..
This pasta dish looks really really delicious! I need to replicate this soon ;)! Thanks for sharing :).
Manu, what a lovely dish. I love how you take on board various experiences and use them to create dishes that conjure up memories of an occasion, a holiday, a festival. Another new pasta for me – thanks for the introduction. Have a great vacation!
This looks awesome! I especially love the pistachio pesto!
Manu, I finally wrote a post about the award you gave me. I attached links back to your site. Thanks for the award!
Wow, this looks & sounds deeeeelicious!! Love the flavours, love the pasta much prefer this kind of pasta too, although i like the little ears aswell :), must try these flavours together. Wonderful Manu, wonderfully tasty.