Italian Paccheri with Swordfish, Pistachio, Eggplant and Smoked Ricotta | Paccheri con Pesce Spada, Pistacchio, Melanzane e Ricotta Affumicata
This is a Sicilian plate built from four things the island does better than anywhere else: swordfish out of the Strait of Messina, eggplant that arrived with the Arabs and never left, pistachios grown on the lava of Etna, and a hard smoked ricotta from the Nebrodi that is grated over the top like a seasoning rather than stirred in like a cheese. None of them is unusual alone. Putting all four on the same fork is what makes the dish.
The sauce is not really a sauce. It is a loose pistachio pesto beaten into the pasta off the heat, with cherry tomato and white wine underneath for acidity and roasted eggplant for body. The swordfish is seared separately and folded in at the last second, because a cube that simmers for five minutes turns dry and chalky no matter how good it was raw.
Paccheri hold all of it. The wide tubes catch cubes of eggplant and fish inside them, and their thickness lets them be finished hard in the pan without softening. This is a summer dish, and everything on it belongs to the same two months of the Sicilian year.
Yield: 4 servings as a main course, 6 as a first course. Prep: 40 minutes. Cook: 30 minutes. Rest: 30 minutes for the eggplant. Total: about 1 hour 40 minutes. Difficulty: intermediate. Course: primo piatto. Region: Sicily, the Ionian coast and the Nebrodi.
The Story
Swordfish belongs to the Strait of Messina in a way that has shaped a whole local culture. From spring into midsummer the fish move through the narrow channel between Calabria and Sicily, and they have been hunted there since antiquity from boats designed for nothing else. The modern passerella carries a mast around thirty metres high with a lookout at the top and a walkway of similar length off the bow, along which the harpooner walks out over the water. The fish is still taken one at a time, by hand, with an arpione, and Pliny described the same hunt in the first century.
The eggplant came later and from the other direction. Arab rule brought it to Sicily between the ninth and eleventh centuries along with rice, citrus and sugar cane, and the island took to it more completely than anywhere else. Pistachios followed the same route to the slopes of Etna, where the trees grow in cracked lava around Bronte and are harvested only in odd numbered years, the growers stripping the flowers in the off year to concentrate the crop. The result is a small, intensely green, resinous nut nothing like the pale commodity pistachio.
The smoked ricotta is the mountain contribution. In the Nebrodi and the Madonie, sheep ricotta is salted, pressed and hung over a slow smoke of olive or oak wood until it is hard enough to grate. It was a way of keeping a perishable fresh cheese through the summer, and it produces something dry, sharp and faintly ashy. Grated over hot pasta it does what no fresh cheese can: it adds salt, smoke and depth without adding moisture.
Ingredients
For the swordfish
Swordfish loin, skin and dark bloodline removed, 1 1/4 lb (570 g)
Extra virgin olive oil, 2 tbsp (30 ml)
Fine sea salt, 1/2 tsp (3 g)
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
For the eggplant
Globe eggplant, firm and heavy, 1 large, about 1 lb (450 g)
Fine sea salt, 1 tsp (6 g) for drawing out water
Extra virgin olive oil, 4 tbsp (60 ml)
For the pistachio pesto
Shelled raw pistachios, Bronte if possible, 3 1/2 oz (100 g)
Extra virgin olive oil, 5 tbsp (75 ml)
Garlic clove, small, peeled and halved, 1
Basil leaves, 10
Cold water, 3 tbsp (45 ml)
Fine sea salt, 1/2 tsp (3 g)
For the pan base
Extra virgin olive oil, 2 tbsp (30 ml)
Garlic clove, lightly crushed, 1
Crushed red pepper flakes, 1/4 tsp (0.5 g)
Cherry tomatoes, datterino if possible, halved, 7 oz (200 g)
Dry white wine, 1/3 cup (80 ml)
For the pasta
Paccheri, bronze die, 14 oz (400 g)
Water, 5 qt (4.7 l)
Coarse sea salt, 2 tbsp (30 g)
For finishing
Smoked ricotta, ricotta affumicata, 2 oz (60 g)
Pistachios, roughly chopped, 2 tbsp (16 g)
Finely grated lemon zest, from 1/2 lemon
Basil leaves, small, 10
Extra virgin olive oil, 1 tbsp (15 ml)
Preparation
Step 1
Draw the water out of the eggplant. Cut the eggplant into cubes of about 3/4 inch (2 cm), leaving the skin on, toss them with the teaspoon of fine sea salt in a colander and leave them 30 minutes over a bowl. Rinse quickly and dry them hard in a towel. Salting collapses the sponge structure so the cubes absorb far less oil.
Step 2
Roast the eggplant. Heat the oven to 400°F (200°C). Toss the dried cubes with the 4 tbsp (60 ml) of olive oil, spread them in a single layer with space between them and roast 20 to 25 minutes, turning once, until deep golden at the edges and creamy inside. Crowded on the tray they steam and go grey.
Step 3
Blanch and skin the pistachios. Drop the raw pistachios into boiling water for 40 seconds, drain and rub them in a towel to loosen the papery skins, then pick the skins away. It is tedious, and it is what keeps the pesto bright green and free of a dusty, bitter edge. Pat the kernels dry.
Step 4
Make the pistachio pesto. Put the skinned pistachios, garlic, basil, salt and the cold water in a blender and pulse to a coarse paste, then pour the olive oil in slowly with the motor running until it is smooth and loose enough to fall from a spoon. Work in short bursts and stop if the jar warms up, since heat from the blade turns pistachio oil bitter and the colour dull.
Step 5
Cut and season the swordfish. Trim away the skin and the dark bloodline, which is strong and metallic in swordfish, and cut the loin into cubes of about 3/4 inch (2 cm) so they match the eggplant. Season with salt and pepper no more than five minutes before cooking, since salt applied early pulls moisture out of the raw flesh.
Step 6
Build the pan base. Warm the 2 tbsp (30 ml) of olive oil over medium heat with the crushed garlic and the chilli flakes for 2 minutes, then lift the garlic out. Add the halved cherry tomatoes, raise the heat and let them blister and slump for 5 minutes, then add the white wine and reduce it by half.
Step 7
Sear the swordfish. Heat a separate pan over high heat with the 2 tbsp (30 ml) of olive oil, lay the cubes in without crowding and sear 45 seconds on two or three sides only. The centre should still be translucent, around 125°F (52°C). Tip them onto a warm plate; they finish cooking in their own heat and again in the pasta.
Step 8
Cook the paccheri. Bring the water to a rolling boil, salt it once it boils, and cook the paccheri 2 minutes less than the shortest time on the packet, stirring in the first minute so the tubes do not stack and fuse. Reserve 1 1/2 cups (360 ml) of the starchy water, and add the roasted eggplant to the tomato base so it warms through.
Step 9
Mantecatura off the heat. Drain the paccheri into the pan with a ladle of pasta water and toss over medium heat for 1 minute, then take the pan off the flame completely and beat in the pesto with more pasta water until the pasta is coated and glossy. It must never boil. Fold in the swordfish and basil last and serve at once.
Plating
Use warm wide bowls, not hot ones. A very hot bowl keeps cooking the pesto after it leaves the pan and the green fades to khaki within a minute. Warm them briefly and no more.
Lift the pasta with tongs and build a low mound, then go back for what is left behind. Eggplant and swordfish are heavier than the tubes and settle at the bottom of the pan, so divide that last spoonful deliberately and set two or three cubes of swordfish visibly on top of each bowl.
Grate the smoked ricotta over each bowl at the table or immediately before it leaves the pass, using the fine side of a box grater so it falls as a dry snow rather than shreds. Finish with the chopped pistachios for texture, a light grating of lemon zest, a few small basil leaves and a thread of raw olive oil. No other cheese, and no parmigiano, which would flatten the smoke.
Professional Technique
The governing technique is that the pistachio pesto goes in with the pan off the heat. Pistachio oil is high in unsaturated fat and volatile aromatics, and both are damaged fast: held above about 160°F (70°C) the emulsion breaks, the oil separates and the flavour picks up a bitter edge while the chlorophyll turns from green to olive brown. Taking the pan off the flame and beating the pesto in with starchy pasta water lets the starch, not the heat, do the binding. This is the same logic as Genoese basil pesto, and it is the step most versions of this dish get wrong.
The second is treating the swordfish as a garnish that happens to be the protein. Swordfish is dense, lean muscle with very little connective tissue and it goes from succulent to chalky within a narrow window. Searing it hard and briefly in a separate pan to around 125°F (52°C) in the centre, then folding it in only at the end, keeps the interior moist and sets a browned crust that the pesto has something to cling to. The residual heat of the pasta finishes it exactly.
Texture and Moisture Control
Eggplant is mostly air and water, and its fate is decided in the first ten minutes. Salting for half an hour collapses the cell structure so the cubes soak up a fraction of the oil they otherwise would, and drying them hard is what allows them to colour instead of steam. Roasted correctly they hold their shape and give the dish its creamy weight; rushed, they turn to oily grey pulp.
The coating on the pasta is a starch emulsion, not a cream. Paccheri pulled two minutes early release the surface starch that binds the pistachio oil and the pasta water into something glossy, which is why they have to be finished in the pan. Keep the reserved water hot and add it a spoonful at a time, since pesto tightens as it cools and a bowl that looked right in the pan can be claggy at the table.
The smoked ricotta is a dry ingredient and must stay one. Grated over at the end it seasons without adding water; stirred into the hot pan it melts into strings and turns the sauce grainy. The chopped pistachios are the same: they are there for crunch and lose it if they go in earlier.
Professional Mise en Place
Only the sear and the mantecatura are a la minute, and both are quick, so everything else stands ready.
Equipment and tools
Blender or small food processor for the pesto, and a rubber spatula
Sheet tray large enough to roast the eggplant in a single layer
Wide saute pan for the base and a second pan for the sear
Large stockpot, tongs, and a jug for the reserved pasta water
Fine side of a box grater or a microplane for the smoked ricotta
Prepared ahead
Eggplant salted, roasted and cooled, 1 day ahead, refrigerated
Pistachios blanched and skinned, up to 2 days ahead, kept dry and covered
Pistachio pesto, up to 1 day ahead, in a jar with a film of oil on the surface
Swordfish trimmed and cubed, 4 hours ahead, kept cold and unsalted
Smoked ricotta grated only at the last moment, since it dries and clumps
Service setup
Pasta water at a rolling boil and salted once it boils
Tomato base finished with the eggplant folded in, held warm
Pesto at room temperature in a bowl beside the pan, never over heat
Sear pan hot, swordfish seasoned no more than five minutes before it goes in
Bowls warm, pistachios chopped, lemon and basil within reach
Chef Tips
Buy swordfish as a thick centre cut steak and cube it yourself. Ready cut dice is usually trimmed from the thin tail, it has already lost moisture at every surface, and you cannot see the bloodline you need to remove. The flesh should be firm, faintly pink and smell of nothing at all.
Skinning the pistachios is worth the twenty minutes. The papery skin carries the tannin and the dullness, and a pesto made with skins on tastes flatter and looks brown however good the nuts were.
If you cannot find smoked ricotta, use ricotta salata and accept that the dish loses its smoke. Do not reach for another smoked cheese: scamorza affumicata and provola melt and go stringy, and their dairy sweetness sits badly against the pistachio.
Taste the pesto before it goes into the pan and adjust the salt then, not afterwards. Once it is beaten into the pasta the dish is thirty seconds from the table, and the smoked ricotta brings another wave of salt. Under season slightly and let the cheese finish the job.
Common Mistakes
Cooking the pesto. Pistachio pesto held over heat separates, browns and turns bitter, and no amount of pasta water brings it back. Take the pan off the flame completely before the pesto goes in and finish the dish with movement, not fire.
Simmering the swordfish in the sauce. Cubes left in the pan for five minutes come out chalky and dry, because swordfish has almost no connective tissue or fat to protect it. Sear it apart, rest it on a warm plate and fold it in at the end.
Skipping the salting of the eggplant. Unsalted cubes behave like a sponge and absorb two or three times the oil, which is why so many versions taste greasy. Half an hour in a colander is the whole fix.
Crowding the roasting tray. Eggplant packed tightly releases steam that has nowhere to go, so it stews instead of roasting. Use two trays and leave space between the cubes.
Melting the smoked ricotta into the pan. It is a hard grating cheese, not a melting one, and heated in the sauce it goes stringy and grainy. Grate it over the finished bowl where it stays dry and seasons the dish.
Wine Pairing
Etna Bianco DOC: The first choice and the one grown closest to the pistachios. Carricante from the volcano has piercing acidity, a saline and flinty finish, and enough tension to cut a dish carrying this much nut oil. That mineral edge runs alongside the smoked ricotta instead of being swamped by it.
Grillo Sicilia DOC: The warmer, more generous answer, from the west of the island. A modern Grillo brings citrus peel, white peach and a herbal note that picks up the basil in the pesto. Its broader body sits comfortably under the eggplant, and it is the easiest of these bottles to find away from Sicily.
Cerasuolo di Vittoria DOCG: Sicily's only DOCG red and a genuinely good match despite the fish. The Frappato in the blend gives high toned red cherry and a floral lift with very light tannin, and Nero d'Avola underneath supplies just enough structure for the seared crust on the swordfish. Serve it at around 57°F (14°C) so the fruit stays bright.
Faro DOC: From the hills directly above the Strait of Messina, where the swordfish comes from, so the pairing is as local as it gets. Nerello Mascalese and Nerello Cappuccio give a pale, savoury red with dried herb and pomegranate notes and a fine chalky tannin that never overwhelms the fish.
Etna Rosso DOC: The more available version of the same idea. Nerello Mascalese grown on volcanic ash is light in colour and firm in acidity, with a smoky, ferrous character that meets the smoked ricotta head on. Choose a young unoaked bottling, serve it cool, and it handles the eggplant better than any white here.
Storage & Reheating
The components keep well and the finished dish does not, so store them separately whenever you can. Pistachio pesto holds 1 day refrigerated in a sealed jar under a film of olive oil and freezes for up to 1 month in small portions. Roasted eggplant keeps 2 days in an airtight container and the tomato base 3 days. Raw swordfish should be cooked the day it is bought.
If you have dressed pasta left, cool it quickly, refrigerate it within two hours in a shallow airtight container and eat it within 24 hours. Reheat it in a wide pan over medium low heat with 2 to 3 tablespoons of water, moving it constantly for 2 to 3 minutes, and take it off while it is still short of hot. High heat does to the pesto now exactly what it does on the first day. Do not use a microwave, and do not freeze the finished dish.
Nutrition
Per serving, based on 4 main course portions:
Calories: 880 kcal
Total Fat: 47 g
Saturated Fat: 8 g
Trans Fat: 0 g
Unsaturated Fat: 37 g
Cholesterol: 65 mg
Sodium: 760 mg
Total Carbohydrates: 84 g
Fiber: 8 g
Total Sugars: 9 g
Added Sugars: 0 g
Protein: 45 g
Lactose: 0.4 g
Principal micronutrients: vitamin B12, selenium, vitamin E, potassium, magnesium, phosphorus, vitamin B6, copper
These figures are estimates. Most of the salt used on the eggplant and in the pasta water is discarded, and the final sodium depends mostly on how much smoked ricotta is grated over the bowl.
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