Serious Eats: Recipes
Cook the Book: Pasta with Parsley and Toasted Walnut Sauce
[Photograph: Caroline Russock]
At first glance this Pasta with Parsley and Toasted Walnut Sauce from Christopher Hirsheimer and Melissa Hamilton's Canal House Cooking looks a lot like pesto. All of the usual suspects are accounted for: green herbs, nuts, garlic, oil, and cheese, and it's made in a mortar and pestle. But after grinding up a batch, I was struck by how un-pesto-like this sauce was, more delicate and creamy than its basil counterpart, and somehow much more of a stick-to-your-ribs plate of pasta.
By grinding walnuts with walnut oil, the sauce takes on the rich smoothness of a nut butter. Unlike a traditional basil pesto, which is all about the basil and garlic, this sauce lets the walnuts really come through both in flavor and texture. One word of advice when it comes to the seasoning of this recipe: don't be shy with the salt. Even though a quarter cup of Parmigiano-Reggiano is incorporated into the sauce, that extra (large) pinch of salt is necessary to bring out the beautiful walnut flavors.
As always with our Cook the Book feature, we have five (5) copies of Canal House Cooking to give away this week.