This morning my husband told me that he had dreamed of pasta with basil pesto and he had woken up craving it. It didn’t seem the ideal dish for a winter lunch – basil is definitely not in season – but cravings are cravings and we must oblige them. Lucky me, last summer I had frozen some basil pesto and a few weeks ago I had made too many tagliatelle (as we call fettuccine in my region) and had frozen a couple of portions. The original recipe calls for ‘trenette’, a type of narrow, flat pasta similar to linguine, but fettuccine are a great substitute.
Ingredients:
(serves 4) Sp Sr V B
- 8 oz. of egg pasta like fettuccine
- 2 medium yellow organic potatoes
- ½ lb. organic green beans
- 2 tsp. Kosher salt
- ½ oz. of Parmesan cheese
- a handful of pine nuts
For the pesto sauce:
- 25-30 leaves of fresh basil
- 2 Tbsp. of pine nuts
- 4-5 Tablespoons of Evoo
- ½ oz. of pecorino cheese
- ½ oz. of Parmesan cheese
Make the pesto sauce.
Wash the basil and remove the leaves from the stems. Combine 1 Tbsp. of pine nuts (reserve the other Tbsp. for later) the Evoo, the pecorino cheese, the Parmesan cheese and 20 leaves of basil (reserve the other 5 for later) in the blender, olive oil first. Start on low and slowly increase the speed. If the ingredients don’t blend well, add more olive oil or one tablespoon of water.
The result should be a smooth, light-green sauce.
Trim and wash the green beans, and cut them into ½ inch pieces.
Peel the potatoes and cut them into ½ inch cubes.
Bring 3 quarts of water to a full boil. Add the salt, the pasta, the green beans and the potatoes. Cook al dente, according to the pasta package directions. While the pasta is cooking, take 2 Tbsp. of the water into which it’s cooking and add them to the pesto, stirring.
Drain the pasta, green beans and potatoes, transfer into a serving bowl, dress with the pesto sauce, toss well and decorate with the remaining pine nuts and basil leaves, shredded with your hands. Grate some Parmesan cheese on top and serve.