Sardinian gnocchi with red pesto and ricotta

Everybody knows pesto, the green basil-based dish from Genoa. But who can list the ingredients in red pesto? What is this thing and where does it come from?

If you don’t know (once upon a time we didn’t either) red pesto is southern Italy’s answer to the famous Ligurian dish and is made of sun-dried tomatoes, which are perhaps the Mediterranean produce par excellence.

We first prepared this sauce when we had dinner guests who professed their love for Italian food but were vague with the specifics, perhaps for fear of coming across as demanding. After some head scratching we found a perfect solution: red pesto is quirkier than the usual bolognese and tends to polarize opinion far less than its green counterpart, whose strongly aromatic notes may feel a bit hard on the nose to some people.

INGREDIENTS

PREPARATION

PREPARE THE SAUCE

• Rinse the sun-dried tomatoes and boil them for one minute in 10% vinegar and 90% water
• Rinse them again in lukewarm water to eliminate the vinegar and any leftover salt
• Peel the almonds: place them in boiling water for one minute, rinse them; then pop them out of their skin
• Put the sun-dried tomatoes, peeled almonds, pine nuts, basil, and garlic in a blender
• Add a pinch of sugar
• Blend until you have a smooth paste

COOK YOUR PASTA

• Place the gnocchetti sardi in a pot of boiling water and cook for 8-10 minutes (follow the manufacturer’s instructions)
• Drain the gnocchetti sardi and sauté them in a pan with the red pasto for a few seconds

SERVE & PAIR

Serve your plate

• Serve your gnocchetti sardi on a flat plate.
• Add a dollop of ricotta and garnish with fresh basil leaves. This dish doesn’t need parmesan!

Pair it with a white wine

• Good choices are Grechetto (or its variant Grecante), the Sicilian Sabbie dell’Etna, and the very versatile Pinot Grigio.
• International cultivars that work well with this dish are unwooded Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc.

ENJOY!