Walnut Sauce Pasta Recipe from Liguria
This walnut sauce pasta is a traditional dish from Liguria in Northwest Italy. Although not as famous as pesto Genovese (basil pesto), walnut sauce is another delicious type of Ligurian pesto. It’s also just as easy to make!
Servings: 4
Calories: 899kcal
Ingredients
- 200 g shelled walnuts (7oz)
- 200 ml milk (1 cup)
- 2 medium slices almost stale country bread
- 1 garlic clove peeled
- 25 g pine nuts (1oz)
- 40-50 g Parmigiano Reggiano (1.5 oz) grated (Vegetarians should use vegetarian cheese as Parmigiano contains animal rennet)
- 4-5 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil.
- fresh marjoram leaves
- salt for pasta and to taste
- freshly ground black pepper. to taste
- 360 g trofie pasta (12oz) or other pasta of your choice.
Instructions
Make the walnut sauce
- Put the shelled walnuts in a pan, cover with water, bring to the boil and simmer for 3-4 minutes. Drain and rinse the walnuts, remove the skins by wiping with a cloth and pat the walnuts dry with kitchen paper or a clean tea towel (this step is optional).
- Break the bread into pieces, put it in a bowl and cover with the milk. When it is completely wet, drain and squeeze the milk out with your hands. Save the milk.
- Put the drained bread in the blender/food processor along with the walnuts and the garlic. Pulse a few times until the walnuts are quite small. Add the parmigiano cheese, pine nuts and 2 pinches of salt. Pulse for about 20 seconds until the sauce becomes a bit smooth.
- Continue to pulse while adding olive oil a little at a time and the remaining milk from the bread as needed to obtain a thick creamy sauce. Store in a sealed container in the fridge until ready to use.
Finish and serve
- Put a pot of water on to boil for the pasta. When it boils add salt and bring to the boil again. Cook the pasta al dente according to the instructions on the packet. My store-bought fresh trofie needed 9 minutes.
- Before draining the pasta, water down the Ligurian walnut sauce with about ½ ladle of pasta cooking water in a pan large enough to hold the pasta too. Stir until the sauce becomes creamy and the right consistency. Also save a cup of the water to add later just in case your walnut sauce pasta seems dry.
- Add the drained pasta to the sauce along with some fresh marjoram leaves, freshly ground black pepper , some pieces of walnuts and a little more grated parmigiano. Mix everything together well and serve immediately.
Notes
You can use different types of pasta for this dish. I prefer short pasta or ravioli but even spaghetti is good! Traditionally walnut sauce is served with pansotti, a type of ravioli.
Some Italians add the marjoram to the sauce and others don't use it. I prefer to add it towards the end when mixing the pasta and sauce together.
Some people add cream instead of milk but it's not actually traditional.
Vegetarians should substitute the Parmigiano with vegetarian cheese as it contains animal rennet.
Nutrition
Calories: 899kcal | Carbohydrates: 78g | Protein: 26g | Fat: 56g | Saturated Fat: 8g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 28g | Monounsaturated Fat: 17g | Cholesterol: 13mg | Sodium: 189mg | Potassium: 549mg | Fiber: 6g | Sugar: 7g | Vitamin A: 174IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 253mg | Iron: 3mg