Pesto à la Sicilienne (ricotta hazelnut pesto)

Bonjour tout le monde! When I was in France, one of my favorite things to eat was a particular kind of pasta sauce, a pesto made with ricotta cheese and hazelnuts. It came in a jar like this, and could be found in the grocery store right next to the marinara sauce:

When I got home, I missed this sauce very much, so I went to google.fr and did much searching for a recipe.  Finally I found one here! :)  However, because this recipe is in French, only I can make it.  So, after making my sauce for relatives on Christmas, I promised I would translate it and post it on my blog.  So here goes!  

Note: the measurements are in ounces, which will have to be measured on a kitchen scale or letter scale (the original measurements were in metric grams).  It would be very difficult for me to convert all the weight measurements to volume measurements with any amount of accuracy since the mass of each ingredient is different, but weighing them is very easy.  Just put a medium-sized bowl on a small scale and tare it back to zero.

Sauce with Nuts and Ricotta/Sicilian Pesto

Vegetarian (contains dairy)

Difficulty: very easy

Price range: medium

Preparation: 15 mins

Cooking time (aka food processor): 2 mins

Ingredients (for 8 people):

8.81 oz. ricotta

3.52 oz. kernels of walnuts or hazelnuts (you can use either; the original recipe calls for walnuts but I like hazelnuts)

3.52 oz. grated or shredded Parmesan

2.82 oz. pine nuts

10 leaves fresh basil (in my opinion this is not nearly enough; you should more than double this)

3 cloves of garlic (or its equivalent in minced garlic, roughly 3 teaspoons I think, but be generous if you like garlic)

3 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons tomato paste

1/2 tablespoon vinegar (whatever type you like works; I used red wine vinegar most recently)

1 pinch salt

1 pinch pepper

Preparation:

This is a sauce that can be served just as well on pasta (penne or spaghetti) as on thinly sliced chicken. [I've never had it on chicken, but I've had it spread on bread, and it was quite yummy.]  

Put all the ingredients except for the pine nuts in a food processor, and blend it for two minutes.  Make sure there are no big pieces of garlic (you can even mix it by hand before putting it back in the food processor [the French are a bit more blasé about sanitation; I'm all for hand mixing, just be sure you wash up]).  Add all the pine nuts and a little bit of broth if you think the sauce is too thick.  Blend it a little bit more, just until the pine nuts are in small pieces.

Now you have your sauce!  You can mix it with pasta or chicken and eat it as it is (which is how I've always done it) or put it in a casserole dish and cook it for a couple minutes (as in two).  

Enjoy!

bye, the end, love Chloe, bye bye!