Spada con Pesto di Mandorle e Menta

Flavours of Sicilian Summer

A favourite summer pasta dish of ours is with Pesce Spada – Swordfish; a hearty, meaty fish discovered all around Sicily’s coastline. The first time we had this dish we were sitting in a quaint – off the road Trattoria in Trapani; we had spent the day on the beach, had a snooze and then went for a glorious dinner. If you prefer not to eat fish then aubergines are a perfect replacement of the sword fish, in fact when we had this dish there were aubergines in there too! So why not add both? As Grandad used to say – if you like it then why not!

This dish bursts with the flavours of Sicily during the summer – Mint, Almond & salty yet creamy Ricotta Salata (salted ricotta cheese) mixed luxuriously through with the Pesce Spada and Linguine. Follow our simple step by step recipe to create your own Strazzanti pasta and Sicilian supper club at home.

Add a chilled glass of white wine on the side – something crisp and minerally would be great to cut through the fattiness of the Swordfish and oil in the pesto!

Method

To make the Pesto place all the ingredients except the olive oil into a food processor and blitz until it becomes smooth (it will stay a bit chunky) – once smooth add in slowly the olive oil and blitz well.

This pasta dish is quick to assemble and cook so it is important that the first thing you do is to put on a pan of water to bring to the boil to cook your pasta. Make sure to season the water well with a good amount of salt (must taste salty).

Whilst you water begins to come to the boil, using a knife cut your swordfish loin into small cubes and keep to the side.

Take a frying pan and place on a medium to high heat adding in a tbsp of olive oil and heat up.
Once your pan is well heated add in your swordfish pieces and seal on all sides. Season your swordfish with a good pinch of salt at this stage.

Once your swordfish is sealed and seasoned take the Pesto and add it into the pan with the swordfish mixing together and frying for 1 minute.

After 1 minute of frying take around 100ml –200ml of cold water and pour the water into the frying pan.

Lower the heat and cook for 5 minutes whilst you cook your pasta.

The pasta water should now be at a rapid boil – following the cooking guidelines on the pasta pack add in your pasta to the water and cook.

Once your pasta is cooked add into your Pesto and Swordfish sauce, mixing well to coat the pasta in the sauce.

Simply serve with a glass of chilled Sicilian white wine.

Buon Appetito!