Here's a recipe for Sicilian fusilli pasta (twisted spaghetti) which also is in the Moorish-Maltese-Italian-Tunisian style. The combination of sweet, nutty, and cheesy combines three cultures: Sicilian, Moorish, and shades of ancient Carthaginian also bringing flavors of both the Central and Eastern Mediterranean food cultures with the Phoenecian pine nuts, lightly toasted and mixed in with the fusilli.
If you've ever eaten pasta, spaghetti, macaroni, or fusilli--all different types of pasta, have you ever eaten fusilli in the Italian-Moorish-Maltese style made with sardines or salmon, ricotta cheese, twisted pasta, toasted pine nuts, olive oil, and golden raisins and sprinkled with olive oil and pasta cooking liquid?
Ingredients
- 1 pound fusilli pasta
- 1/2 cup golden raisins
- 1 tablespoon of apple cider or balsamic vinegar
- 1/4 cup lightly toasted pine nuts
- 1 cup of fat-free ricotta cheese
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 1 (9-ounce) bag fresh spinach, roughly chopped
- 1 can wild caught salmon or one can of sardines
- 1 cup (about 3 1/2-ounces) grated Asiago
- 1/2 cup grated Parmesan
- 1 teaspoon salt (optional) Leave out salt if you're salt-sensitive.
- 3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Directions
Bring a large pot of water to a boil over high heat. Add the pasta and cook until tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally, about 8 to 10 minutes. Drain pasta reserving 1/2 cup of the cooking liquid. The water doesn't have to be salted if you're salt sensitive because the cheeses have plenty of salt and so do the canned fish.
Meanwhile, warm extra virgin olive oil in a large, heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Add the spinach and canned salmon or canned sardines and cook until the spinach wilts, about 2 more minutes.
Add the cooked pasta and toss. Add the cheeses, salt, pepper, raisins, toasted pine nuts, and the pasta cooking liquid and stir to combine. Transfer the pasta to a serving plate and serve.
Here are more sites for fusilli recipes. See, Fusilli With Spinach, Ricotta, and Raisins | Real Simple Recipes. See Nutritional Information for this recipe. Also see these other twisted pasta (fusilli) recipes online such as Recipes with Pine nuts, Sherry, Broccoli, Raisins, Garlic, Fusilli, or Fusilli with Spinach and Asiago Cheese, Recipe courtesy Giada De Laurentiis, which is at the Food Network.com recipe site.
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