Spaccatelle pasta with Sicilian sun-dried tomato pesto and burrata.
This sun-dried tomato pesto has a fabulous intense flavour which pairs deliciously with creamy burrata to make a dish you will fall in love with!
Servings: 4
Calories: 696kcal
Ingredients
- 400 g pasta ( I used spaccatelle) you can also use other short pasta such as penne, rigatoni, fusilli etc
- 20 g almonds
- 20 g pine nuts
- 1 handful basil leaves
- 200 g sun-dried tomatoes in oil
- 1 garlic clove
- ½ fresh peperoncino (red chili pepper) optional
- extra virgin olive oil as required
- 30 g pecorino or Parmesan cheese grated
- 200 g burrata
- salt for pasta and to taste
- black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Put a pot of water on to boil for the pasta. Add salt once it comes to the boil and bring to the boil again.
- Drain the sun-dried tomatoes from the oil and chop into pieces. (keep some oil if you want to use it in the pesto)
- Peel the garlic and cut in half. Remove the seeds from the peperoncino (if you are using it) and cut into small pieces)
- Dry fry the nuts until they start to brown (if using whole almonds they take longer than the pine nuts so put them in the pan first and add the pine nuts once the almonds start to brown slightly)
- Put the chopped sun-dried tomatoes, the almonds, the pine nuts, the basil, the peperoncino and the garlic into the mixer with a little olive oil and pulse a few times until the mixture breaks up tino small pieces.
- Add the cheese, more olive oil and a pinch of salt.
- Pulse again until the ingredients are grainy but not too smooth. You may need to add more olive oil to get the right consistency. You can also use a little of the oil the tomatoes were preserved in for a stronger flavour.
- Cook the pasta al dente according to the instructions on the packet. When it is cooked, save a cup of the cooking water and drain.
- Put some of the pesto into a frying pan and heat. Add some of the pasta cooking water to make the sauce more liquidy. Then add half of the burrata cut into pieces. Once the burrata is starting to melt add the drained pasta. Mix everything together well and serve with some extra pieces of burrata and sun-dried tomatoes. You can add some ground black pepper, more grated cheese and basil leaves if required.
Notes
If you can’t find burrata, you could also add some fresh ricotta to the dish (not to the pesto) or just eat it without.
You can serve sun-dried tomato pesto with other types of pasta. I would recommend short shapes such as penne, rigatoni, fusilli etc.
Like other kinds of pesto, this sun-dried tomato pesto can be eaten in different ways. It’s great served as a dip or on bread and can also accompany fish or meat. If kept in an airtight jar in the fridge, will last for up to 2 weeks.
Nutrition
Calories: 696kcal | Carbohydrates: 89g | Protein: 29g | Fat: 29g | Saturated Fat: 10g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 4g | Monounsaturated Fat: 8g | Cholesterol: 41mg | Sodium: 259mg | Potassium: 1083mg | Fiber: 7g | Sugar: 3g | Vitamin A: 1080IU | Vitamin C: 51mg | Calcium: 415mg | Iron: 3mg