Farfalle
Pistachio, Onion, Mint
Everyone knows the “bow tie” shape from boring grocery store pasta salads. However, farfalle is much more special than that. With a history dating back to the 16th century in Emilia-Romagna and Lombardy, the labor intensive handmade versions were often paired with rich truffle and cream sauces. Since then the shape and its uses have become region agnostic and have adapted to all the regions of Italy serving as vessels for each specialized cuisine. So, to simply dismiss this as a boring shape because it's use here is doing it an incredible disservice considering its rich history in Italy. Plus bowties are proper A.F., so this is like the 007 of pasta.
This is my best interpretation of a favorite from Sicily. We landed in Taormina and stumbled into a little spot, and were immediately blown away by a dish we had never seen before. The idea of mixing pistachio and mint into a pasta was completely foreign until that point. It took quite a few looks at 7 year old photos and trial and error to get to this final recipe. The original unexpectedly used farfalle which after recreating this dozens of times makes sense, it holds sauce well, but collects the mint and pistachio in the little “knot.” No joke, this one is a Mike Tyson caliber knockout.
Servings: 4 - Time: ~20 mins. - Difficulty: 1 - Itsa Easy
Ingredients & Mise en Place
16 oz. farfalle
1 cup pistachio - finely chopped to coarsely ground - ¼ cup for cream - ¼ cup for topping
1 large yellow onion - diced
12-14 mint leaves - fine chiffonade / extra thin strips
1 ¼ cup heavy cream - add ¼ cup of the chopped pistachio
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
grated parmigiano reggiano
extra virgin olive oil
sea salt
pepper
Note:
Soaking pistachios in the cream gives the cream a little boost of pistachio flavor which gets infused into throughout the dish.
Directions
Bring a stockpot of heavily salted water to a boil.
In a deep sauté pan over medium heat add butter, onion, salt, and pepper and sweat until soft - about 5 minutes.
Add the farfalle to the boiling water and cook until al dente, ~11-13 minutes.
While the pasta cooks, add the pistachio to the onion mixture and stir until it creates a paste, about five minutes. Next temper in the pistachio cream, a little at a time, stirring the entire time. Once all the cream has been incorporated turn the burner down to low.
Once the pasta has finished cooking, reserve ¼ cup of the pasta water and strain. Add the pasta and reserved pasta water to the cream sauce - stir and toss until pasta is evenly coated. Remove from heat and add in the mint and stir again. Divide into four portions, sprinkle some additional pistachio on top and some fresh grated cheese.