Skip to main content

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
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Fig Crème Fraîche Cake

Welcome back!  Today, we have a cake featuring an interesting fruit: the fig! Figs are typically eaten dried or in some processed form because they don't stay fresh for long, so making this dish out of fresh figs was quite nice. Once completed, the fig flavor blends in very well with the rest of the cake and creates a dessert that is flavorful but not overly rich. Fig Crème Fraîche Cake Makes a 9" cake Ingredients: 1/2 pound figs, quartered (if you have big figs, maybe 6-8 slices) 120 grams cake flour 50 grams almond flour 2 teaspoons baking powder 1/4 teaspoon salt 50 grams sugar 60 grams honey 120 grams crème fraîche 3 eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 tablespoon Grand Marnier 1/2 cup melted butter Directions: In a bowl, sift in the dry ingredients (cake flour, almond flour, baking powder, and salt). Mix this together. In another bowl, put in the sugar, honey, and crème fraîche, and mix them together.  One add a time, add the eggs and mix thoroughly. Add in the vanilla ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Brownie Cheesecake

Welcome back to Chez Chefpo!  Today, we have a delicious treat that combines two wonderful desserts into one! If you like brownies and cheesecake, you're going to like this too, as the two flavors really balance and complement each other. It also goes well with some fresh fruit and is a good final course of a meal. (In fact, you got a sneak peek at it in our Pasta Salad recipe!) Brownie Cheesecake Makes a 9" round pan Ingredients: Brownie: 6 ounces dark chocolate 4 ounces (1 stick) unsalted butter 2 tablespoons brown sugar 6 tablespoons sugar 2 eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 75 grams cake flour 1 tablespoon cocoa powder 1 teaspoon espresso powder 1/2 teaspoon salt Chocolate chips (optional) Cheesecake: 8 ounces ricotta cheese 8 ounces cream cheese 4 ounces plain greek yogurt 2 eggs 50 grams sugar 1/4 cups dried fruit (cranberries, raisins, blueberries) soaked in rum/brandy/Grand Marnier Lemon zest (optional) In place of the ricotta cheese, you could use another 8 ounces of c...
Post a Comment
Read more

Pearl Meatballs

Welcome back!  Today, we have a unique recipe that comes from Central China: Pearl Meatballs! The name is quite interesting but makes sense: they're meatballs, but the translucence of the sticky rice that coats the meatball mirrors the luster of a pearl. It's often served on special occasions, like Lunar New Year, where everyone gathers for a feast and can enjoy this delicious dish. Plus, it's not even that difficult to make! Pearl Meatballs Makes about 30 meatballs Ingredients: For the meatballs: 1/2 pound ground pork 1/4 pound shrimp 80 grams (about 1/2 can) water chestnuts, finely chopped 2 tablespoons green onion, finely chopped 1/2 teaspoon ginger, minced 1 teaspoon soy sauce 1 teaspoon sugar 1 teaspoon rice wine 1 teaspoon sesame oil 1/4 teaspoon white pepper 1/2 egg white For the rice: 1 cup glutinous (sticky) rice Directions: Rinse the glutinous rice and soak in water for 2 hours. In a bowl, place all the ingredients for the meatballs and mix until even. The mixture...
Post a Comment
Read more