A delicious spring pasta: Bronte's pistaches pesto & speck

Do you know what the pesto of pistaches is? It is a sauce made of mashed pistaches from Bronte, a town near Catania, and it is mixed with some salt, pepper and oil of olive. It is a product that people normally buy in supermarkets but I don't think you find it anywhere else out of Sicily.

The recipe that I am going to put is something my mum and I created on a sunday morning, while we were thinking about an original nice way to dress our pasta. We like to try combining different ingredients so we decided to use not only a Sicilian pistaches pesto but also some speck, which is a smoked Parma ham typical of the region of Trentino Alto Adige, up in the north, added some creamy cheese as well and it was just fabulous! We couldn't have a better result! 

So with a little more imagination we can say that Italy is united in this dish also in our three colors of the flag :) 

Ingredients & preparation for four people:

380 gr. penne rigate (or any other type of pasta you like)
4-5 tablespoons of pesto

80 gr. speck thinly sliced and chopped in pieces

2-3 tablespoons of creamy cheese (like Philadelphia or similar)

3-4 leaves fresh mint

some grated lemon zest
black pepper

Cook the penne as usual, adding salt when the water boils. While they are cooking, in another sauce pan or frying pan, put the chopped speck on a medium heat, after a couple of minutes add the pesto of pistaches and some hot water taken from the pasta, add the creamy cheese as well, a bit of black pepper, the leaves of mint and some grated lemon if you like them all and... voilà the sauce is ready!
As soon as the penne are cooked, drain and sautè them in the sauce pan with the dressing, mixing well all together. Sprinkle with Parmisan cheese on top and the whole of Italy is served right on your table! Delicious!!!

Local Expert Award ? The Sicilian Cuisine Blog is in!!!

This short post is to thank the website Charming Sicily to have awarded me with the title of 'Sicilian Local Expert'. It's always nice when somebody you don't know drops you a few lines to say how much appreciates your blog, but it's even nicer when somebody actually thinks you are worth getting an award, even if a virtual one!

To be honest with you, I have never felt like an expert, so I am particularly honoured, therefore I will treat it as very valuable indeed! Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart :-)))

Exquisite fava beans mash: the Sicilian "maccu"

Do you know what is the so-called "MACCO DI FAVE"? In Sicilian the word macco becomes maccu and is used to name an exquisite dish we prepare with dried and peeled fava beans. It is a mix between a thick soup and a puree, because when you cook fava beans they mash up and become an homogeneous soup. You can also have it with pasta, as one of our 'minestra'.

Here comes the recipe for 4 people:

250 gr dried peeled fava beans

3 ts tomato sauce
a small bunch of wild fennel (like 20% of the one in the pic)
3 ts extra virgin oil of olive
hot chili pepper (a little piece or half of it)
salt

Preparation:

First of all, wash the fennel under running water. In a pot on a medium heat put some water (about 1 litre) with the fava beans. As soon as the water starts to boil add salt, fennel cut in small pieces and half of a little chili pepper and reduce the heat at the minimum.

Let the beans cook slowly, stirring from time to time so that they don't get stuck at the bottom. To obtain the mash they have to cook about one hour all together, but it also depends on how water you put. If it's too much wait until the majority of it is absorbed by the fava beans. 
After the first 25 or 30 minutes, add the spoons of tomato sauce and olive oil. Finally, serve hot with grilled slices of rustic bread spread with a clove of garlic.
It's simple, it's healthy and delicious, everyone loves it and is also perfect for vegeterians. Can we ask for more? :-))