Sun-dried Tomatoes and Pecans for a “COVID-19 Lockdown” Recipe

This is our seventh Sunday in lockdown and I tried out a new recipe today well knowing that cooking and then eating together will aways whisk away even the hint of a CPA (Coronavirus Panic Attack).

And as always, I cooked with what we had here in our home. Today’s new “COVID-19 lockdown recipe”? Sundried-Tomato and Pecan Sauce for pasta

Here’s what I used for this sauce for our pasta at lunch:

about 10 cherry tomatoes
our olive oil
a few branches of marjoram
a couple garlic cloves
8 – 10 sun-dried tomatoes
pecans (about 1/2 c. – walnuts or almonds would be fine, too)
milk (3 T)
spaghetti (a fistful for every portion)
grated cheeses – I used both parmigiana and pecorino romano

I started by picking the marjoram just outside our back door:

After washing the tomatoes, I split them in half and took out seeds and the water:

Pino offered to finely dice the sundried tomatoes and then using his favorite small hand-grinder, he ground most of the pecans:

(I had set aside some of the pecans to crumble on the pasta sauce before serving the pasta):

Pino then sliced a garlic clove and after adding it to the ground pecan/sun-dried tomato mixture,….

…. he added marjoram leaves:

After grinding this mixture in a blender…

Pino added about 1/4 c. our olive oil:

I put the water on to boil for our spaghetti and after covering the bottom of a stainless steel sauce pan with olive oil,…..

I slid in a sliced garlic clove. a branch of marjoram and most of the split cherry tomatoes:

I wanted to add about 4 or 5 tomatoes to the blended pecan/sundried-tomato mixture:

Afer blending the mixture with the fresh tomatoes, I set it aside.

I added spaghetti to the salted boiling water and raised the heat slightly – and just for a few minutes – on the simmering tomatoes:

When the pasta was cooked al dente, I drained it, setting aside some of the boiling pasta water to add to the blended mixture to warm it up. I put the simmered cherry tomatoes in the bottom of the pasta-cooking pot….

…..and then poured in the spaghetti, mixing swiftly. I added a ladleful of the boiling pasta water to the pecan mixture to warm it up….

…and I also added a couple tablespoons of milk to make it creamier:

The creamy pecan/sun-dried tomato blend then joined the spaghetti mixed with the cherry tomatoes.

When in the serving bowl, I sprinkled on top a bit of crushed pecans and a mixture of Parmesan and pecorino romano cheeses as I had both – and the pecorino romano has a nice bite (as is typical of a sheep’s milk cheese):