Why Red Pesto Is Better Than Green Pesto
By Posie Harwood
If the grocery store isn’t your favorite place, it should be. We’re sleuthing for the best back-of-the-box recipes and every Sunday, Posie Harwood from 600 Acres will share our latest find.
Today: Green pesto is so last summer. Instead, try red pesto and use up all your tomatoes.
I’m going to stop you before you correct me. The pesto in question here is not a proper, traditional pesto. It’s red rather than green.
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I’m not someone to take liberties with my terminology. I value precision of language and general grammatical correctness. When I was seven years old, I noticed that the label on a family-sized bag of UTZ potato chips read “Party Pak!” Embarrassed for their oversight, I nicely wrote a letter to the headquarters: “Dear Sir, I regret to inform you that you misspelled the word pack on your bag. I am seven, you’re welcome.” I even signed it “Crunchily yours, Posie.” My parents still have a copy, and they lord it over me at family gatherings while everyone tears up laughing.
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So it bothers me when people call a white bean dip “white bean hummus” or say bruschetta when they really mean crostini. But before you protest that I am doing just that here, I did my research: Pesto comes from the Italian word pestare (to pound). Traditionally it includes pine nuts, basil, and Parmesan, which means we’re not veering too far off track here—just dropping the Parmesan and swapping in almonds for pine nuts.
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Then, add ripe plum tomatoes to turn the pesto red. You barely taste them: It doesn’t resemble a tomato sauce so much as a nuttier, smoother pesto. And those Italians are clever—they add in some bitter celery leaves to counter the sweetness of the tomatoes. This pesto recipe comes from the back of the De Cecco pasta box, which, bizarrely, is turning out to be one of my favorite recipe sources.
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To the finished pasta dish, I’ve added fresh raw corn, but any vegetables will be a welcome addition. Take that Parmesan you left out of the pesto and grate it on top to gild the lily. The result is a gorgeous summer dinner, easy to make for a crowd and simple to tweak according to the contents of your garden in any given week.
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Red Pesto Pasta with Fresh Corn
Adapted from De Cecco
Serves 4
1 pound dried linguine fini or other thin pasta
4 ripe plum tomatoes
15 basil leaves
1 tablespoon celery leaves
1 tablespoon parsley leaves
1 clove garlic
1 pinch salt
½ cup almonds (sliced or whole)
¼ teaspoon black pepper
6 tablespoons olive oil (use a very good one)
3 ears corn
Bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Add the pasta and cook until al dente, following the instructions on the package. Plunge into an ice bath, drain, and let cool.
Bring another pot of water to boil. Drop the tomatoes in for about 1 minute, until their skins split. Transfer them to a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking. Once cool, peel the skins and remove the seeds.
In a food processor or blender, combine the peeled tomatoes, basil, celery leaves, parsley, salt, garlic, almonds, pepper, and olive oil. Process until smooth.
Shuck the corn and slice the kernels off of the cob. In a large bowl, toss the pasta with the sauce and the raw corn. Serve topped with chopped parsley or grated Parmesan.
Photos by Posie Harwood.
