Can I Use Salted Pistachios In The Pear Pistachio And Rose Cake?

Our answer

Nigella's Pear, Pistachio And Rose Cake (from AT MY TABLE) is a moist gluten-free cake made with ground pistachio nuts and ground almonds (almond meal). It is difficult to find ready-ground pistachios, so the recipe starts by grinding whole, shelled pistachios in a food processor.

For this recipe you need to use shelled, unroasted (raw) and unsalted pistachio nuts. The type sold salted, roasted and in their shells are not suitable as they will be far too salty and will affect the flavour of the dish. Pistachios that are suitable for baking can usually be found in the baking section of most supermarkets and they are sold out of their shells. The weight of pistachios given in the recipe is the weight of the nuts only. Unfortunately we also don't recommend trying to rinse the salt away from salted pistachios as they are still slightly salty. We suspect this is due to the nuts being tossed with salt while they are still warm, which means the nuts may absorb a little of the salt.