Walnuts sauce,
Ligurian cuisine 

This sauce, typical of Ligurian cuisine, is known as the typical accompaniment of pansotti (the traditional herb tortelli of this region) but not only.

I also use it to season pasta; and it is always a success.

The simplicity and speed of preparation are combined with an extreme versatility of uses, from simple pasta, precisely, to very tasty filled pasta.

For example, in concluding the photos accompanying this recipe, the walnut sauce was used to season mine meat ravioli extremely tasty: they have enhanced and enriched the flavor without absolutely going to cover it.

The ingredients are in very variable quantities, much depends on personal taste and the quality of the ingredients: fresh marjoram has a different flavor from the dry one and the crumb of the day before bread is different from the dry bread of the previous week ...
in any case, and starting as always with the ingredients, let's start cooking!

Ingredients for four people:

nights	g.	50
pine nuts	g.	15
garlic	clove	1
breadcrumbs		q.s.
milk		q.s.
grana		Ad Lib.
extra virgin olive oil		q.s.
salt and pepper		q.s.
marjoram		Ad Lib.
chopped walnuts to decorate		Ad Lib.
cooking water (to dissolve the sauce in the tureen)		q.s.

 

Preparation:

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Blanch the walnuts to remove the skin and drain them.

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Dry them and rub them in a cloth to separate the kernels from the cuticles.

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Remove the cuticles and keep the kernels.

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Cut the bread crumb into small pieces and soak them in a little milk.

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Cut the garlic into small pieces and mix it with the pine nuts and marjoram.

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Add the walnuts (keeping some chopped kernels aside for the final decoration), soaked and squeezed bread and grated cheese.

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Now tradition would like everything to be worked, adding one ingredient at a time, with mortar and pestle ...
here we are content to pass everything with the hand blender.

Then pass into a bowl, taste and season with salt and pepper.

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Transfer to a bowl.

Put the water on the stove and as soon as it boils, start cooking the pasta (in this case some nice ravioli).

When the pasta is almost cooked, take some cooking water and mix it with the sauce until you get a cream as youthful fluid.

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Drain the pasta and dress it in the tureen in the case of ravioli or tortelli, fish them with a slotted spoon and pass them directly into the tureen!

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Distribute the pasta on the plates and complete with the chopped walnuts kept aside and any sauce left in the bowl.

Buon appetito!

ADVICES AND NOTES:

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• Recipe, text only: to print or download.
• This sauce can also be prepared in variations with other nuts: for example with almonds.
• See also: Pesto sauce, wild garlic pesto.

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