🍝 Pasta alla trapanese
Pasta alla trapanese is a Sicilian pasta dressed with pesto trapanese, a raw sauce of ripe tomatoes, almonds, basil, garlic and pecorino. It is traditionally served with busiate, twisted hand-rolled pasta that holds the coarse sauce well. The dish is fresh, fragrant and nutty, and is eaten in summer when tomatoes are at their best.
Diets
Allergens
Contains (in a typical recipe):
What it is made of
Recipe
Ingredients
- 400 g busiate
- 400 g ripe cherry tomatoes
- 60 g blanched almonds
- 1 large bunch basil
- 2 garlic cloves
- 40 g pecorino, grated
- 3 tbsp olive oil and salt
Method
- Lightly toast the almonds in a dry pan and let them cool.
- Pound or blend the almonds, garlic and basil, then add the tomatoes and pulse to a coarse sauce.
- Stir in the pecorino, olive oil and salt.
- Cook the busiate in salted water, drain and toss with the raw sauce.
How to make it lighter
- Reduce the almonds to 40 g: nuts are the densest part of the sauce.
- Use 2 tbsp oil instead of 3: 1 tbsp olive oil ≈ 120 kcal.
- Keep pasta to 80 g dry per person and add extra tomatoes.
History
The sauce comes from Trapani on the western tip of Sicily, a port where Genoese sailors are said to have brought their basil pesto; locals adapted it with tomatoes and almonds grown on the island. Busiate with pesto trapanese remains the signature pasta of the province.
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Values are estimates per 100 g for a typical recipe; home and restaurant versions vary. Diets and allergens are worked out from the ingredients of a typical recipe — always check with whoever cooked the dish. Not medical advice. Nutrition data: Me Nutrition dish database v13. How we count →