Rigatoni With Pistachio, Ricotta and Herb Pesto

rigatoni with pistachio in bowl with fork next to it

Connie Miller of CB Creatives

Servings: 4 to 6

Start to finish: 25 minutes

Sicily is famous for its pistachios, as well as for ricotta cheese. In this recipe, we blend the two, along with fresh basil and chives, to create a simple pesto to toss with al dente pasta. There’s no need to grate the Parmesan — simply cut it into chunks and toss the pieces into the blender. The pesto is good on a wide variety of pasta shapes, but the hollow centers and surface ridges of rigatoni do a particularly good job of gripping the rich, creamy sauce.

Ingredients

1 pound rigatoni or other short tubular pasta
Kosher salt and ground black pepper
1⅓ cups whole-milk ricotta cheese
¾ cup raw pistachios, plus 2 tablespoons finely chopped pistachios
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more to serve
2 ounces Parmesan cheese (without rind), cut into 4 or 5 pieces
½ cup lightly packed fresh basil
¼ cup roughly chopped fresh chives

Directions

In a large pot, bring 4 quarts of water to a boil. Stir in the pasta and 1 tablespoon salt, then cook, stirring occasionally, until al dente. Reserve 1½ cups of the cooking water, then drain the pasta and return it to the pot.

In a blender, combine the ricotta, the whole pistachios, oil, Parmesan, basil, chives, ½ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon pepper. Add 1 cup of the reserved pasta water and blend until creamy, about 1 minute; the pesto should have a consistency similar to yogurt.

Pour the pesto over the pasta and stir, adding more reserved pasta water as needed so the sauce coats the noodles. Taste and season with salt and pepper. Serve drizzled with additional oil and sprinkled with the chopped pistachios.