Pesto Di Agrumi

The Fresh and fruity…

Another pesto that originally comes from Sicily. With oranges and lemons as main ingredients probably not unusual. But unusually definitive in taste. It tastes fruity, slightly sour and a little bitter…just very fresh and perfect when it is still almost 30°C at 9 o’clock in the evening.

As always there are many variations and modifications. Most of the recipes I have found use basil instead of rucola, which tastes very good as well. I have decided to show the rucola variant because, well, the rucola gives it a slightly bitter taste. I sometimes buy a jam “di Agrumi” and it also tastes slightly bitter and is made of oranges and lemons. Using rucola here I maintain some kind of continuity.

However, I can only recommend to try basil as well, it has a completely different but at least as delicious taste.

Ingredients (2 servings):

200g Pasta
60g Rucola
30g Almonds
1 Orange
1/2 Lemon
15g Pecorino (matured)
15g Parmigiano (matured)

Preparation:

First grate the rind of lemon and orange. Then peel and fillet both (use only the half lemon fillets).
Afterwards wash and dry the rucola and puree everything together in a blender.
Then put the almonds in the mixer and chop coarsely. The almonds should only be chopped and not pureed.
Finally, add the grated Parmigiano and Pecorino cheese with a little olive oil until you have a creamy mixture and the pesto is almost ready.
For the pasta, bring a pot with plenty of water to the boil (1 litre of water per 100g of pasta).
When the water starts to boil, add salt (10g of salt per 100g of pasta) and when it starts to boil again, add the pasta.
About 2 or 3 minutes before the pasta is al dente, heat up the pesto in a pan with some of the pasta water and bring it slightly to boil at low heat.
As soon as the pasta is al dente, drain and add to the pesto in the pan. Stir everything together once again and serve.

Tips…

As I said before, there are many variations here as well. Some without lemon, with pine nuts instead of almonds, or especially tasty with basil instead of rucola. Especially the variant with basil is very tasty on hot summer days.
Before you use the rucola you should try it. If it is too bitter, then it is recommended to blanch it briefly.