Homemade Pistachio Paste Recipe (Pistachio Butter)

Some of you have astutely deduced that the shelled pistachios were destined for a homemade pistachio gelato. Pistachio gelato is one of my favourite gelatos, and my partner was sweet enough to make some for me using his new ice cream maker. After shelling the pistachios, he blanched them and removed the skins. Next, he turned the pistachios into a pistachio paste (required for the gelato recipe). Apparently, you can buy pistachio paste. He wanted to get Bronte pistachio paste from Italy, which is reputed to be excellent, but all sources seemed to be sold out for the summer so he decided to try his hand at making it from scratch using the raw nuts. There are several recipes for how to make pistachio paste online. He decided to use an amalgamation of several recipes and it turned out well. Here's what he did: Homemade Pistachio Paste Recipe (also known as Pistachio Cream and Pistachio Butter) Ingredients: •9 or 10 tbsp hot water •8 ounces raw unsalted shelled and hulled pistachio nuts •1 cup super fine sugar •2 tsp olive oil or pistachio oil •2 - 4 drops almond extract or pistachio extract •Pinch of salt Directions: Shell pistachio nuts. In a medium sized saucepan, bring water to a boil. Blanch pistachios in boiling water for 1 1/2 minutes. Drain the nuts and spread them in a single layer on a baking tray. Remove pistachio skins. Place the pistachios, sugar, olive oil, salt and 1 tbsp of hot water into a food processor. Process the mixture, adding 1 tbsp of water at a time, until the desired consistency is reached (generally about 9 tbsps). Add 2-4 drops of almond extract. Transfer the paste to a mixing bowl and blend well with an immersion blender to achieve a finer paste. The pistachio paste can be used in all sorts of things, including gelato, cakes, as a filling for pastries or macarons, or simply as a sweet spread on toast. We used ours to make Pistachio Gelato. To make Pistachio Gelato, we used David Lebovitz's excellent recipe here: Pistachio Gelato Recipe by David Lebovitz For a very informative, interesting and inspiring video on making cornstarch-based ice cream, check out Mark Bittman. https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7277/7562688318_3d256da086_b.jpg