Craft The Pasta Sauce Of Your Dreams With Pistachio Paste

Somewhere out in sun-soaked Sicily, you'll find pistachios ground with oil into a smooth, vibrant green paste and distributed into fancy little jars. They will then go on culinary adventures all over the world, sometimes landing as a spread on decadent cheesecakes or filling for golden bread buns, and other times, making a home right in coffee shops and ice cream stores. There are some truly marvelous ways to use pistachio paste, and not just within the realms of desserts and beverages. A little mixing and simmering can also give you quite a unique pasta sauce.

Nutty, subtly bitter, and a little floral with a sweetness that plays hide and seek with your taste buds, pistachio paste is no ordinary condiment. Even as a main ingredient, it doesn't attack the senses immediately like a tomato sauce would. Instead, it simply sinks into the flavor landscape. As you're eating the pasta and going through all the savory, herby, and garlicky elements, you can always find it harmonizing in the backdrop, soothing the palate with its sophisticated depth and earthy freshness.

And the texture? It's just as splendid. The paste's silky richness becomes even more transcendent when turned into pasta sauce. Every drop coats the pasta, melting those gorgeous flavors all over the plate.

Store-bought pistachio paste often comes with quite a hefty price, so if you want, make your own at home using blanched pistachios, sugar, salt, and a little oil. Just grind the pistachios into a fine paste and add the remaining ingredients as you're doing it. A few rounds in the food processor later and you should have a creamy, smooth pistachio paste. On the stove top over low heat, cook it with heavy cream, herbs and seasonings, perhaps some cheese, and stir until the sauce reaches your desired consistency. This one ingredient could make your fettuccine alfredo a real standout from all the usual, familiar dishes out there.

Oh, and that's not all. Your pistachio pasta sauce is always open for all kinds of twists and changes. Incorporate a bright and fresh pesto into the mix for an herbaceous aroma layered into all that nutty richness. Don't just try it with regular pasta. Go for burrata ravioli if you aim to impress. Confit tomatoes, in all of its tangy glory, is an excellent match for this combination, especially when you want a light and fresh pasta that's still flavorful. If you want to amp the earthy tone up a notch, there's no choice better than leafy greens like spinach, arugula, or kale. Maybe even consider grinding it into the pistachio paste as you're making it at the beginning. And sometimes, even a simple squeeze of lemon can tie everything together with its zingy magic.