Peru Green Spaghetti

[debbie24]

My X-SIL is from Peru and her grandma made green spaghetti. It was so good. I'm not sure if thats the proper name but it was spaghetti with a green sauce, i'm guessing made with basil. It was just so yummy and i was wondering if anyone knows what this is and if they have a recipe they wouldnt mind sharing. Thanks.

 

[healthyfoodie]

could it have been pesto? it's not peruvian, but it's green w/basil.

 

[Caine]

Just substitute green tomato for red in your spaghetti sauce recipe.

 

[kitchenelf]

debbie - did it have a sauce of tomatoes or was the sauce just the "green" stuff. It does sound like pesto since you mention basil. Did it more or less coat the spaghetti but wasn't "saucy" like a tomato sauce?

 

[Caine]

I'm tellin' ya, Peruvians make their spaghetti sauce with green tomato puree, which is made by cooking 3 pounds of diced green tomatoes and a couple of tablespoons of sugar in a half cup of water for a couple of hours, then adding a diced onion, a small amount od sun dried tomatoes, heavy cream, and salt and pepper to taste.

They eat guinea pig, too! I usually don't mind trying new food items, but I draw the line at rodents! In New Caledonia, Civet de Roussette, which is a stew made with fruit bats, is a delicacy, but I don't think I'll be trying that anytime soon, either.

 

[ironchef]

Debbie, Caine is probably correct but do you think you could be any less vague? Flavors and textures would be very helpful. By green sauce, it could be anything: pesto, a sauce like how Caine described, chimichurri, or a lobster's digestive tract.

 

[debbie24]

eww hahaha that was funny thanks for the laugh ironchef. The last time i had it was about 7yrs ago. It wasnt saucy like a tomato sauce or spaghetti sauce. It wasnt really dry but not real saucy. I was thinking it might be a pesto. Maybe i'll try making pesto one day and see if that might be it. I tried the jar basil pesto and it was horrible & didnt bring back any memory of that great green spaghetti so thats why i sort of ruled it out and thought maybe someone on here might know another way of making it. I'm guessing homemade pesto is alot better so i'll try that.

 

[jpmcgrew]

Jarred pesto is awful stuff you need to make it fresh or the very least buy the pesto where they sell fresh pasta at the store.

 

[QSis]

I've googled this a couple of times today, debbie. I think the dish you had was tallarin verde, which is spaghetti with a spinach-basil sauce that is creamier than your basic pesto.

However, I can't find a recipe for it!

Lee

 

[jpmcgrew]

Peruvian Light Green Sauce - Ahi? (Aji?) - Home Cooking - Chowhound - 73k found this with a similiar question.

 

[debbie24]

QSis thank you. I'm willing to give that a try if someone has a recipe.

 

[kitchenelf]

I believe QSis nailed it. I can't find a recipe either

It is talked about but I can't put my fingers on an actual recipe. It's always described as a basil, spinach cream sauce. I would start with making your own basil, spinach pesto and adding some cream to it.

You can start with this recipe and then when heating add small amounts of cream until you think it looks right.

2 cups (packed) fresh spinach leaves
2 cups (packed) fresh basil leaves
2 TBS chopped garlic
about 2/3 cup pine nuts
1 1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese (fresh, not the "green" can)
juice of 1 lime
2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

Put everything except the oil in a food processor (not a blender) and pulse away. Once it starts breaking down slowly drizzle in oil until you reach a consistency you want. You may not need all of the oil either. Keep it thicker since you are mixing it with the cream.

 

[kitchenelf]

debbie - was the basil and spinach all ground up or was it in julienned strips?

Also, some of the recipes I found include some chopped tomatoes.

Can you tell us anything else about the sauce? We need textures, how things looked, how they were cut or chopped.

 

[debbie24]

Kitchenelf thank you. I thought it was about 7yrs since i've had it but its been more like 9 or 10. From what i remember everything was ground up and there were no tomatoes. It wasnt saucey, it was more on the dry side. Gosh i hate to do this but i may have to call my x-sil, i remember asking her years ago but she didnt give me a recipe just things to throw together and i honestly dont remember what she said, i'm pretty sure there was basil though. I'm sure her 80yr old grandma doesnt have a recipe, she probably just knows how to make it. I'll probably give her a call. I'll post if and when i find out something. Hopefully i'll get a recipe and i'll get to share it on here.

 

[keltin]

I found a blog where a girl and her friend were making Tallarin Verde. She doesn’t give an exact recipe, but she describes what’s in it.

We shopped for ingredients. She ripped the basil leaves off the stems and put them in a pile and packed the spinach into the measuring cup. She helped peel garlic, measure pine nuts and evaporated milk and olive oil, and dump everything into the food processor. (Yes, it’s basically pesto sauce, but with three times as much spinach as basil.)

It sounds good.

Does it look like this?

 

[keltin]

I contacted the girl that wrote that blog, and she didn’t have time to look up and transcribe the recipe, but she said she got the recipe for Tallarin Verde from this book that you can get from Amazon (or maybe even eBay).

 

[debbie24]

OMG thats what it looks like. That looks so good, i want to have some now! Thanks Keltin i'm gonna go take a look at that book.

 

[QSis]

Ah-HA! It's evaporated milk that makes it creamy! Cool!

Lee

 

[kitchenelf]

Ah-HA! It's evaporated milk that makes it creamy! Cool!

Lee

Yep, and evaporated milk has that distinctive taste unlike cream or anything else. I can't wait to make this!!!!!

 

[keltin]

It sounds and looks really good! Since I haven’t seen the recipe in that book, I’m thinking of using kitchenelf's recipe and modify it according to what I learned from that blog. So the recipe would be this.

2 cups (packed) fresh spinach leaves
5 oz (packed) fresh basil leaves
2 TBS chopped garlic
2/3 cup pine nuts
1 1/3 cup evaporated milk
2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

Since 2 cups is 16 oz, and that blog said it was a 3 to 1 ratio of spinach to basil, that means about 5 oz of Basil. What do you think Elf.....do you think that will do it?