Don’t forget when you make this recipe to peel both the tomatoes and the almonds well. The basil must be clean, and it really is necessary to clean it. Also, to give creaminess to the sauce and the pasta, add a tablespoon of water from the pasta cooking water, nice and salty and rich in starch.

Tradition has it that this pesto is born in the port of Trapani, where Genoese ships were docked. Through cookery lessons from the Genoese, not least those relating to pesto, the Trapani people devised a wholly Sicilian version with the addition of local ingredients, such as fresh tomatoes, Sicilian pecorino sheep’s cheese, and top quality almonds. Thus was born the Trapani version of the classic pesto.