Dad's fave crunchy n’ creamy pasta recipeSTEPS 4 INGREDIENTS 9 TIME 45 MINS
We first ate this pasta plate - known as 'penne alle mandorle' (penne with almonds) in Italian - at a cute little trattoria called Oesteria da Mariano in the wind-swept coastal town of Siracusa (below right). I was very hungry indeed when I sat down and luckily this turned out to be one of those creamy pasta discoveries that you could quite easily munch the whole evening long... exactly what I needed and a dish I hope you’ll enjoy just as much. As the title above suggests, my Dad certainly did when we fed him this recently... One quick tip: if you can find it at your local farmers market or Italian delicatessen, try to buy fresh ricotta cheese, as taste-wise it makes this dish even more scrummy. Serves 4
- 100g/3.5oz crushed almonds - 5dl/17 fl oz half-fat cream - 50g/1.75oz breadcrumbs (from tub) - 500g/17.5oz penne pasta - 1 medium white onion - 20 fresh basil leaves - 250g/9oz ricotta cheese - Extra virgin olive oil STEP 1 - First, just a few minutes of quick preparation: - Peel and chop onion as finely as possible.
- Grate approx. 3 tablespoons of parmesan cheese. - Rinse and tear the basil leaves. - Use a pestle & mortar STEP 2 - Pop breadcrumbs and crushed almonds into two separate oven dishes or trays. - Toast under a maximum heat grill for 10-15 mins, shaking regularly, until nicely browned. Important! After the first few mins of grilling, don’t take your eye off them for a second, as they turn brown real quick! strong>STEP 3 - Coat a frying pan with a thin layer of oil, heat through on a medium hob, then drop in the onions and basil. - Fry until onion softens (approx 10 mins).  - With the onion softened, add the cream, 2 tablespoons of salt and 3 of grated parmesan. - Heat through, stirring only occasionally, until cream becomes thicker and some of liquidity disappears (roughly 10-12 mins). Then take pan off heat.  STEP 4 - Boil a large pan of well-salted water and when boiling add penne pasta. - Cook as per packet’s recommended timings. - Just quickly, while the pasta cooks, take a large mixing bowl and stir together the almonds, ricotta and half the toasted breadcrumbs (keep remaining crumbs in a small bowl for serving at the table). - When ready drain pasta. Speed tip: Once you’re confident multitasking, next time you can speed things up by setting the pasta cooking and mixing the ricotta mixture while you cream sauce is bubbling away. STEP 5 - With pasta drained, pop cream sauce back on a medium heat hob and mix in both the ricotta mixture and drained pasta. Done! To serve: pop in pasta bowls and let your eaters sprinkle the remaining toasted breadcrumbs over their own servings for a crunchy brown top layer. Buono!
Enjoyed this creamy pasta recipe? Then why not try... • Tomato-licious and equally creamy pasta with ricotta • This full selection of cream sauce pasta recipes
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Ingredients:
(or rolling pin and small plastic bag) to crush almonds into smaller pieces (not too much though, they shouldn’t be fine like flour but should retain some ‘crunch’!).
