Name: Tocco de Noxe (Walnut Sauce)
Yield: Makes about 1 cup/225 ml
Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients: ¾ cup/170 ml prescinseua, or 5 ounces/140 g fresh ricotta diluted with a bit of tepid water; 4 tablespoons/60 ml Ligurian extravirgin olive oil; 1 pinch minced fresh marjoram; 7 ounces/200 g unsalted walnut meats; 2 tablespoons/30 g fresh, finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano; Sea salt (optional); 1 clove garlic, with the green heart removed, minced; 2 tablespoons/30 g unflavored bread crumbs

Preparation info

Makes about
1 cup

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Recipes from Paradise

By Fred Plotkin

Published 1997

About

Tocco de noxe is probably of western Asian origin. It appeared in ancient Persian cuisine and still turns up in certain dishes in the Balkans and around the Black Sea. Given that the medieval Republic of Genoa traded heavily at Black Sea ports, the idea for the sauce probably originated there, although it has become a distinctly Ligurian food that marries well with many classic Riviera dishes. Traditionally this sauce is used to top pansôti, the herb-filled pasta that is class