Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Pasta with Walnuts, Olive Oil and Parmigiano-Reggiano

This is a simple and lovely pasta recipe that's full of flavor and takes just minutes to make. The recipe is from Mark Bittman of the New York Times. I left out the parsley and instead added a big handful of grated Parmigiano-Reggiano.

1 cup walnut or pecan halves
1/2 cup loosely packed parsley leaves, washed and dried
1 clove garlic
3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil (I used much less oil)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 pound linguine, spaghetti or other long pasta

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and salt it. Meanwhile, combine nuts, parsley and garlic in a small food processor and turn machine on. (Note: I just chopped the nuts instead of using a food processor, and just mixed the oil and nuts with the pasta.) Add oil gradually, using just enough so that mixture forms a creamy paste. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

2. Cook pasta, stirring occasionally, until it is tender but not mushy. When it is ready, drain it, reserving a little cooking water. Toss with sauce. If mixture appears too thick, thin with a little more olive oil or some of the pasta cooking water.

9 comments:

  1. What a lovely dish! But I want the parsley back in!!!!!

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  2. Interesting... I love tasty pasta recipes with few ingredients. Will give this one a whirl soon :-)

    If you have walnuts leftover Michele, you could also whip them into a walnut pesto. I learned this recently and it's a scrummy variation!

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  3. Looks great!! The way the recipe was written it seems almost like a parsley pesto...Peace, Stephanie

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  4. Walnut and pasta, what a great flavour!
    Lovely dish!
    Cheers

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  5. nice blend of flavours with pasta.. unique!.. i would try with parsley..

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  6. This looks delicious. I would use the parsley too, but I'm with you on reducing the amount of oil. Yikes!

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  7. This looks fantastic and totally like the kind of comfort food I crave on busy days! I'll leave out the parsley, too. :-)

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  8. I love pasta any which way, Michele. This recipe sounds really good — and simple. It wouldn't be complete without some Parmesan - good call!

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  9. Thanks for all the sweet comments!

    Great idea about the walnut pesto Matt!

    I try to like parsley, but I don't... it reminds me too much of cilantro.

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