Ultimate Summer Pesto Pasta with Basil, Almonds & Tomatoes
Looking for the ultimate summer pesto pasta? This Sicilian-inspired version is sunshine in a bowl—light, vibrant, and bursting with fresh seasonal ingredients like basil, tomatoes, garlic, and almonds. It’s faster than takeout and a thousand times more flavorful.
Ingredients
- 500 g fresh tomatoes any tomato with plenty of pulp; peeled with excess seeds removed
- 25 g fresh basil a large handful
- 40 g pecorino cheese semi-aged or aged
- 50 g peeled almonds toasted
- 2 cloves fresh garlic 'red' garlic is traditional but any fresh is fine
- salt pinch or to taste
- 40 g olive oil
- 320 g pasta Busiate is traditional. Or, choose fusilli or your pasta of choice!
Instructions
Prepare the ingredients
- Lightly toast the peeled almonds in a dry skillet until fragrant. Do not burn.
- Finely grate the pecorino cheese.
- Score the tomatoes and boil them for 30 seconds until the skins loosen.
- Peel the tomatoes, discard excess seeds and water, and set aside just the pulp.
- Chop the garlic and almonds coarsely.
Make the pesto (in a mortar and pestle)
- Add the garlic and chopped almonds to the mortar with a pinch of coarse salt. Mash into a rough paste.
- Add the basil and grind it in circular motions until it forms a paste. The almonds help create friction to mash the basil more easily.
- Add the tomato pulp and continue mashing.
- Stir in the grated cheese.
- Gradually mix in the olive oil to emulsify the pesto.
Make the pesto (with an immersion blender or blender)
- Combine tomato pulp, basil, chopped almonds, garlic, and salt in the blender or immersion blender cup.
- Blend into a rough paste.
- Add olive oil and blend again briefly until smooth.
Serve
- Toss the pesto (uncooked) with cooked pasta.
- Busiate is the traditional choice, but fusilli or similar shapes work well.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!