Pasta alla salsa di noci

Being a food fiend is like being Mary Poppins sometimes. The same way Mary left her print on Mr Dawes and his kid, the food fiend leaves a trail of newly converted cooks wherever he/she goes.
Yesterday, I was invited at a friend's place. She is normally quite reluctant to spend more than 2 minutes in the kitchen but yesterday we found a recipe that sounded sublime: Pasta alla salsa di noci (Pasta in a walnut sauce).
I did not have my camera with me to capture the beautiful swirls of shiny pasta and walnut sauce, though. I'll take one later when I'll cook this recipe at home.
I will just add breadcrumbs to thicken the sauce a little.

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Recipe for 4 people:
-500 gr pasta
-200 gr walnuts
-50gr pine nuts
-100gr parmesan cheese (freshly ground or shaved)
-2 cloves of garlic
-30 leaves of basil
Olive oil

Ground walnut and pine nuts in a food processor. Cook on medium heat for 2/3minutes with crushed garlic.
Off heat add cheese and stir well. Place pan back on the stove add water, a little bit at a time to get a sauce consistency. Add basil. Toss into pasta immediately and garnish with shaved parmesan.

Comments

[Giant Squid]

Ilva: Do you, by any chance, have recipe of walnut pesto? (noci pesto, woohoo, I speak Italian). Ithought about toasting the nuts and grinding all the ingredients together to get a paste. I thought it would coat the pasta better.

Sha: 3 months in Italia! It must be paradise for a foodie. I had a look at your blog but could not find an Italian section, "only" Greek, French, British, Filippino and Norwegian.

[sha]

first time I tasted this walnut sauce was in Genova, Italy
I was based there for 3months and bless my culinary adventures was a great expercience.

[ilva]

Sounds like my type of recipe, simple but full of flavours! Thanks!