Pasta with walnut sauce
Prep time: 10 minsTotal time: 
Pasta with walnut sauce
This pasta with walnut sauce, also known as pasta con salsa di noci, is one of Dara Klein's 'favourite “no-cook” pasta sauces, hailing from the north-western region of Liguria, famous for its pesto genovese. It’s creamy, moreish and comes together really easily.’
Prep time: 10 minsTotal time: 
Dara Klein
Dara is head chef and founder of Tiella, a trattoria and bar in east London, which opened earlier this year. Her debut cookbook, La Trattoria (Ebury Press, £30), is out now
Dara Klein
Dara is head chef and founder of Tiella, a trattoria and bar in east London, which opened earlier this year. Her debut cookbook, La Trattoria (Ebury Press, £30), is out now
Ingredients
- 40g slightly stale, crustless rustic bread
- 200ml whole milk
- 160g walnuts
- 40g pine nuts
- 60g parmigiano reggiano*, finely grated, plus extra to serve
- 1 sprig fresh oregano, leaves picked
- 1 garlic clove
- 1½ tbsp extra virgin olive oil, plus extra to serve (optional)
- sea salt flakes, to taste
- 360g bucatini, spaghetti, tagliatelle or linguine
Step by step
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Put the bread in a bowl, pour over the milk and let soak for about 5 minutes until soft. Lift the bread out of the milk and give it a good squeeze. Transfer to a blender or food processor with 150ml of the milk (reserve the rest). Add the walnuts, pine nuts, grated cheese, oregano leaves, peeled garlic clove, extra virgin olive oil and a good pinch of sea salt flakes and freshly ground black pepper. Blend everything for 30 seconds and, if needed, add more of the milk, little by little, to loosen the sauce so it combines easily. It should have the consistency of a creamy pesto, but it shouldn’t be loose or runny. Taste and adjust the seasoning to your liking.
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Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil. Add the pasta and set a timer for 1 minute less than pack instructions. If using a long pasta shape, pay attention to the pan for the first couple of minutes, stirring thoroughly with a wooden spoon so that the pasta doesn’t stick to the bottom.
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Reserve about 250ml of the cooking water, then drain the pasta. I like to mix the pasta and sauce in a large bowl. You can return the pasta to the pan but ensure it’s on a very low heat so as not to burn the sauce. Add the walnut sauce to the pasta and stir everything together until the pasta is coated in the sauce, adding enough of the cooking water to give a coating consistency. Try tossing the bowl (or pan) back and forth gently, to create a wave (the ‘mantecatura’), which emulsifies the sauce.
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Taste and adjust with any extra salt, pepper or olive oil and serve immediately with plenty of extra grated cheese on top.
*Use a vegetarian alternative, if required.
