Pasta With Sun-dried Tomato/Cashew-Pesto And Ricotta

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Question : Who love’s a bright-green, traditional, heavenly aromatic basil pesto?
Answer : Just about everybody does, that’s who. (Including myself)
However, for my very own personal taste, I prefer to pair traditional pesto with light and airy gnocchi, while I love to marry a rustic pasta like penne rigate, rigatoni, farfalle or bucatini with a more complex pesto such as this Sun-dried Tomato/Cashew-Pesto.
I hope that the Italian purist’s out there will forgive me and maybe even agree with my opinion that a non-traditional pesto such as this Sun-dried Tomato/Cashew-Pesto can elevate a simple pasta to even greater culinary bliss than a one-note basil/pine pesto nut will ever be able to do. In my humble opinion, anyway……. 🙂
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Bon Appétit ! Life is Good !
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Pasta With Sun-dried Tomato/Cashew Pesto And Ricotta

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Preparation :
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: to 1 cup sun dried tomatoes preserved in olive oil add 1/2 cup olive oil, 1/4 cup salted cashew nuts, 2 tblsp garlic paste, kosher salt and cayenne pepper to taste

: pulse with hand mixer until coarsely chopped

: add 1 cup tightly packed basil leaves and 1/2 cup grated parmigiano reggiano, pulse again until basil is coarsely chopped, check/adjust seasoning