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Pesto
The full Ligurian ritual — hand-twisted trofie boiled with potato and beans, dressed in a mortar-bright pesto that stays emerald green
- Prep
- 50 min
- Cook
- 20 min
- Serves
- 4
Ingredients
- 00 flour — 300 g
- warm water — 150 ml
- fine salt — 3 g
- basil leaves, small Genovese type — 60 g
- pine nuts — 30 g
- garlic — 1 small clove (5 g)
- Parmigiano Reggiano — 40 g
- Pecorino Sardo — 20 g
- extra virgin olive oil, delicate Ligurian — 100 ml
- waxy potatoes, 1 cm dice — 200 g
- fine green beans, 3 cm lengths — 150 g
- coarse salt for the mortar — 2 g
Method
- Knead flour, water and salt; rest 30 minutes. Pinch hazelnut-size pieces and drag each across the board under your palm's edge to form tight spirals. Dry 30 minutes.
- Chill the mortar. Pound garlic with coarse salt to cream, add pine nuts, pound smooth.
- Add basil in three additions, grinding in circles — never bruising long. Work in cheeses, then oil in a stream. Keep cool.
- Boil potatoes in well-salted water 5 minutes; add beans and trofie together for the final 4–5 minutes.
- Reserve 100 ml starchy water; drain everything together.
- Off the heat, fold pasta and vegetables through the pesto, loosening with the reserved water — pesto must never touch direct heat.