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Pesto Calabrese

Welcome back! 
Today, we have another recipe in our pesto journey: Pesto Calabrese! This variation also hails from Calabria in Southern Italy - in fact, it is the same region that produced the Nduja Pasta. This pesto deviates from the typical Genovese Pesto much more significantly than the Sicilian Pesto, with two main notable differences. The Pesto Calabrese incorporates cooked ingredients to provide an additional dimension of flavor as well as ricotta cheese to thicken up the texture. And because it is a Calabrian dish, you can always add an extra kick of spice with some extra Calabrian chili flakes.

Pesto Calabrese

Makes 4 servings

Ingredients:

  • 12 ounces pasta
  • 4 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 small red onion or 2 shallots, chopped (about 1 cup)
  • 1 large red bell pepper, charred, peeled, and diced*
  • 12 ounces tomatoes, chopped
  • 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
  • 1 teaspoon dried oregano
  • 20 grams basil (about 1/4 cup packed)
  • 1/2 to 1 teaspoon salt to taste
  • 200 grams ricotta cheese
  • 50 grams Pecorino Romano, grated
*For convenience, you can char the bell peppers by broiling in the oven for 10 minutes.

Directions:

  1. In a pan, saute the onions in the oil.
  2. Once the onions are transparent, add in the bell pepper and cook.
  3. Add in the tomatoes, red pepper flakes, and oregano and cook until soft on low heat. These first three steps should take about 15 minutes of cooking.
  4. Stir in the basil and salt, then let cool a little.
  5. Pour the cooked ingredients into a blender or food processor and blend.
  6. Add in the ricotta and Pecorino Romano and pulse until even.

  7. Cook your pasta, strain the water out, and mix in the sauce.
Ultimately, this pesto doesn't strongly evoke the same feeling as its more well-known green cousin. Rather, it feels almost like the filling of a lasagna - tomato sauce and ricotta cheese - mixed together in a more homogenous pasta sauce. But even if it isn't like the typical pesto, it's still a great sauce to pair with any type of pasta - though we loved the shape of the long fusilli with this pesto!

-Chefpo
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