Maccarroni chi Pistachio di Bronte

Ingredients

• 320 g Penne or rigatoni
• For the pistachio sauce
• 320 g Pistacchio di Bronte DOP, raw, unsalted, unshelled weight before blanching
• 400 ml Double cream, cold
• 60 g Pecorino, finely grated
• 1 tsp Black pepper, freshly ground
• 2 ladles Pasta cooking water, reserved before draining
• To finish
• 30 g Pistacchio di Bronte DOP, roughly chopped, raw

Method

1. 1
   Bring a large pan of well-salted water to a full rolling boil. Blanch the shelled Bronte pistachios in the boiling water for 2 minutes, then lift them out with a slotted spoon — reserve the pan of water for the pasta. Tip the blanched pistachios onto a clean cloth and rub firmly to remove the purple skins entirely. The pistachios should be vibrantly green; any skin remaining will introduce bitterness and dull the colour.
2. 2
   Transfer the skinned pistachios to a food processor and pulse to a rough paste — not a smooth butter. Stop when the texture is coarse and granular, with some visible pieces remaining. Texture is integral to the character of the sauce; over-processing destroys it.
3. 3
   Place the cold cream in a wide sauté pan over a low flame. Add the pistachio paste to the pan while the cream is still cold, stirring to combine before any heat builds. This prevents the fat in the paste from separating as the cream warms. Raise the heat to medium-low and bring gently to a bare simmer, stirring steadily. The sauce will turn a deep, opaque green and thicken slightly — it must remain thick and clinging, never liquid. This is where the dish lives or dies: too much heat drives off the cream and breaks the emulsion; too little leaves the paste unintegrated.
4. 4
   Cook the pasta in the reserved boiling water according to the packet time, withdrawing it 1 minute before al dente. Reserve 2 ladles of the starchy cooking water before draining. Add the cooking water to the pistachio cream one ladle at a time, stirring to emulsify the cream and pistachio fat into a cohesive sauce. The surface should look glossy and just fluid enough to coat the back of a spoon.
5. 5
   Drain the pasta and add it directly to the sauce pan over a low flame. Toss continuously for 1 minute until every tube is thoroughly coated and the sauce clings without pooling at the base of the pan.
6. 6
   Remove the pan from the heat entirely. Add the finely grated Pecorino and the black pepper, folding them through quickly. The Pecorino must be added off heat — contact with an active flame causes it to seize into strings rather than melt into the sauce. The finished sauce should be smooth, deeply savoury, and uniformly green.
7. 7
   Divide among four warmed bowls. Scatter the roughly chopped raw Bronte pistachios over each portion. The raw pieces provide colour contrast and textural definition against the cloaking sauce.