Pesto Di Pistacchio E Menta

Fresh for the summer…

This pesto is already fun to cook, because it smells of mint all the time during the preparation. It is a bit like chewing mint gum. That’s why I was a bit sceptical at first, because I was afraid that all the mint would dominate the taste too much.

Fortunately, the opposite was true. When the pasta with the pesto is on your plate, it smells wonderfully of mint. But when you eat it, the taste of the pistachios comes first and very clearly. When you breathe in the next time, the mint appears and leaves a cool feeling of freshness in your mouth.

For me, one of the best pestos for the summertime!

Ingredients (2 servings):

200 g Pasta
30 g mint
35 g pistachios
1 garlic clove
Olive oil
Salt
Parmigiano

Preparation:

Actually the preparation is very fast like most pestos. Only the peeling of the pistachios is quite tricky. Just put them into boiling water and then rinse with cold water. Afterwards the skin of the pistachio kernels can be rubbed off very easily. Of course you can also use ready peeled pistachio kernels, but they are not as green as fresh ones.
Then put a pot of water on top, bring it to boil, salt it and so the water starts to boil again, put the pasta in it. As always, per 100 g pasta 1 litre of water and 10 g of salt.
While the pasta is boiling, put the washed mint leaves, the pistachios and the clove of garlic with about 2 to 3 tablespoons of olive oil and 2 to 3 tablespoons of the already salted pasta water in a mixer and puree finely.
Shortly before the pasta is ready, put the pesto in a pan and heat it slightly on the lowest possible flame (do not boil!). Stir the pesto in the pan and add spoonfuls of the pasta water until the pesto gets a nice creamy consistency like in the pictures below.
As soon as the pasta is al dente, drain and add to the pesto in the pan.
Stir well once again, place the pasta on a plate and sprinkle with Parmigiano Reggiano before serving.