Passport & Plate - Linguine with Pesto
Italy | Saturday, February 28, 2015 | 5 photos
Ingredients
Pesto (makes 400g):
150g fresh basil leaves
2 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped with salt
8 tablespoons good quality extra virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons pine nuts
2 tablespoons walnut halves
60g fresh parmigiano reggiano, finely grated
40g fresh pecorino romano, finely grated
40g butter, room temperature
Allow 100g linguine per person
How to prepare this recipeTo make the pesto, in a food processor add the basil leaves, garlic, walnuts, pine nuts, olive oil, a generous pinch of salt and pepper and pulse until blended.
Add the grated cheese and softened butter and blend again until the pesto becomes creamy and smooth. Add an extra glug of olive oil for good measure.
Cook the linguine until al dente. When ready, drain and reserve a 1/4 cup of the pasta’s cooking water. For each person add a heaped tablespoon of the pesto to the hot pasta and add enough of the reserved water to loosen the sauce. Serve immediately.
Store the pesto covered with a little olive oil in the fridge. Keeps for up to 1 week.
The story behind this recipeLast year I found myself in Manarola, staring out at the sea wondering why I’d never ventured further than Genova on a previous trip to the region. The last time I’d been in Liguria was 3 years earlier, with nothing other than my best friend, terrible beginner’s Italian and a backpack containing all of my worldly possessions. We never made it to the coast even though the locals we encountered said it was a must, and we also managed to leave for Pisa having tried neither focaccia or pesto (later on this same trip we somehow skipped out on bolognese in Bologna too, if you can believe it). We were young fools high on life and panini, and what did we know?
Nothing, apparently; regions and cities are known for particular dishes for a reason – they are the best you’re likely to try. That is why you should make it a priority to eat rixi e bixi in Venice, pizza in Naples, trippa in Rome, arancini in Sicily and of course, pesto in Liguria.
So there I was staring at the sea in Manarola, eating small pieces of focaccia speckled with sea salt flakes thinking back to that summer spent backpacking around Italy missing out on it seems, a lot of the good stuff. Not this time, I thought, and suitably I spent that evening with a plate of trofie al pesto in front of me, the way life had clearly intended.
The next day I picked up a batch of fresh pesto from one of the pastifici artigianali in Santa Margherita, and used it as a tasting guide when making my own pesto back in London. Being able to recreate a taste of my trip once it was over was the greatest thing I could take away from it.
