My friend Magali writes that with chilly winter temperatures in Geneva so she has been enjoying a lot of pasta these days. Yes, don’t we all do that? Cold day, forget a salad, let’s go for something a little more heartwarming and satisfying, right? So from Geneva with love: Pesto Genovese Pasta.
Traditionally, it’s prepared with a marble mortar with a wooden pestle. I have one and rarely use it. Magali swears that she doesn’t mind the extra work of doing it all by hand because it gives a different texture and a better flavor. I can buy that. But, traditions aside, the simplest way to make this sauce when you don’t have either a mortar nor the time is to use a blender or a food processor (keep in mind, the ingredients should not be heated in the blender, so just pulse for a few seconds, and then add the next ingredients).
Pesto Genovese Pasta
From Geneva with love: Pesto Genovese Pasta. On a cold day, forget a salad, let’s go for something a little more heartwarming and satisfying? Makes sauce for 400 g of pasta.
Ingredients
- 2 cloves of garlic
- pinch of sea salt
- 1 cup fresh basil, Genovese basil or buy fresh at the market, not too strong (50 g)
- 1 tablespoon pine nuts (5 g)
- 7 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (100 ml)
- 2 tablespoons Pecorino cheese or Grana padano cheese (30 g)
- 1/3 cup parmigiano reggiano cheese (80 g)
Method
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Finely crush the garlic and salt, add the basil leaves one hand at the time, add the pine nuts and then the cheese.
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Add some of the extra virgin olive oil and keep pounding and/or mixing until you obtain a fine and smooth creamy sauce. Do not cook pesto!
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Trofie and trenette are the pasta used in Liguria but linguine or spaghetti al dente also go very well with this sauce.
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