Trofie al Pesto
Local name : Trofie al pesto
Ligurian trofie cooked with potato and green beans, coated in basil pesto pounded in a mortar.
Photo : Eluinie · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Prep
- 20 min
- Cook
- 15 min
- Total
- 35 min
- Serves
- 4
- Difficulty
- Easy
Method
- Pound the garlic with a pinch of coarse salt in a mortar, add the pine nuts and work them to a paste.
- Add the basil a handful at a time and crush it against the sides with a turning motion, never chopping, until you have a green purée.
- Work in the cheeses, then trickle in the oil while stirring until the pesto is creamy.
- Cut the potatoes into 1.5 cm cubes and the beans into short lengths, and drop them into boiling salted water.
- After 5 minutes add the trofie to the same pan and cook for the time given on the packet.
- Drain, saving a ladle of the water, then toss everything with the pesto off the heat, loosening with the reserved water until glossy.
In Liguria the potatoes and beans cook in the same water as the pasta, and their starch softens the pesto. Never add pesto over heat, or it loses both colour and perfume.
