Ingredients
a handful (about 40g) of pine nuts, lightly toasted
½ a small garlic clove
a big bunch (about 60g) of fresh basil, leaves picked, coarsely chopped, plus extra to serve
juice of 1 lemon
extra virgin olive oil
150g pecorino cheese, grated
200g new potatoes
500g fresh tagliatelle
a big handful of fine green beans, topped and tailed
Method
Just add greens beans and fine slices of potato and hey presto, you've got pasta Genovese
- Egg pasta and pesto together is a piece of cooking genius really, and just about the only successful tweak you can make is to add a few green beans and some very thinly sliced potato – like they often do in Genoa.
- If you haven’t had it before, try it – you’ll like it, and it’s really quick and easy.
- Bring a large pan of water to the boil. Meanwhile, crush the pine nuts in a pestle and mortar with the garlic. Scoop out, put to one side, then put the basil in the mortar with a pinch of sea salt and bash until it turns into a green paste. Return the bashed nuts and garlic to the mortar with the lemon juice, a few tablespoons of oil and half the pecorino. Stir together and season well with salt and a little pepper.
- Peel the potatoes, discarding the peel, then continue stripping the potato with the peeler until you have a pile of thin potato strips.
- Add some salt to the boiling water and add the tagliatelle, the trimmed beans and the potato strips. Cook for 2–3 minutes until the beans are cooked but still have a slight bite, the pasta is al dente and the potatoes are cooked through. Drain in a colander, reserving a little of the cooking water.
- Toss the cooked pasta and vegetables in a bowl with the pesto. Taste and season again, if necessary. Add a little of the reserved pasta cooking water to moisten the sauce if it’s a little thick and claggy. Serve sprinkled with the remaining pecorino and extra basil.
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