Michelin-starred chef Giorgio Locatelli offers a recipe close to his heart: the classic Sicilian dish of Busiate al pesto trapanese
Michelin-starred chef Giorgio Locatelli offers a recipe close to his heart: the classic Sicilian dish of Busiate al pesto trapanese.
You can read Giorgio Locatelli’s diary and guilty food pleasure here
Busiate al pesto trapanese
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Serves 4
1 quantity of pesto trapanese (see below)
For the pasta:
175g semolina fl our
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75g ‘00’ flour plus extra for dusting
1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 teaspoon sea salt
Put all the pasta ingredients into a food mixer with a paddle and whiz until everything comes together in a dough, then leave it to rest for 20 minutes.
Have ready a baking sheet, dusted with flour. To form the busiate, roll the dough out into a rectangle about 2mm thick. Cut it lengthways into strips 1cm wide.
Take each strip and coil it tightly along the length of a large skewer or clean knitting needle. Roll the skewer or needle gently over your work surface, so that you flatten the pasta slightly and help the coil of pasta to stick to itself, then push it gently off the skewer or needle and lay it on the floured baking sheet.
Repeat with all the strips of pasta, laying them on the sheet in a single layer to dry for about an hour, until they hold their shape.
Bring a large pan of water to the boil and add salt. Put in the busiate and cook for about 5 minutes, or if using packet pasta, for 1 minute less than directed.
Drain lightly, put back in the pan, add the pesto, and toss all together.
Pesto trapanese
Tomato and almond pesto
Makes about 600g
75g almonds
500g plum tomatoes
4 garlic cloves
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
40g fresh mint, shredded
50ml olive oil
Heat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas 4. Lay the almonds in a single layer on a baking tray and put into the oven for about 8 minutes. As long as they are in a single layer you don’t need to turn them. Keep an eye on them to make sure they don’t burn, and when they are golden, take them out and chop them.
Put the tomatoes into a pan of boiling water for 10 seconds, then drain them under cold water and you should be able to peel them easily. Cut them in half, scoop out the seeds with a teaspoon, and chop the flesh.
Grind the toasted almonds with the garlic, using a pestle and mortar, until you have a paste.
Add the tomatoes, salt, pepper and mint and pound again very briefly, just to crush the tomatoes a little. Then add the olive oil a little at a time, working it into the paste.
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