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Italian Recipe

Trofie al Pesto Genovese

Liguria’s twisted pasta with true Genoese pesto, finished the canonical way: boiled together with potatoes and green beans, sauced off the heat.

Liguria’s twisted pasta with true Genoese pesto, finished the canonical way: boiled together with potatoes and green beans, sauced off the heat.

30 min Prep Time
15 min Cook Time
4 Servings
medium

Instructions

  1. Wash the basil gently and dry it completely on a cloth; water is pesto’s first enemy, heat the second.

    8 min

  2. Pound garlic with a few grains of coarse salt in the mortar to a cream. Add pine nuts; pound to a paste.

    5 min

  3. Add the basil in handfuls with a pinch of salt, crushing against the walls with a rotating wrist rather than smashing, until the leaves release a bright green liquor.

    8 min

  4. Work in both cheeses, then the oil in a thin stream, stirring with the pestle until you have a dense, fragrant cream. (Food processor truce: pulse briefly with chilled blade and bowl.)

    5 min

  5. Boil the potatoes in well-salted water for 5 minutes; add the trofie and green beans together and cook until the pasta is al dente.

    12 min

  6. Reserve a cup of cooking water, drain, and return everything to the warm (not hot) pot off the heat.

    1 min

  7. Fold in the pesto, loosening with splashes of the starchy water until every twist is coated in pale green cream. Serve immediately.

    2 min

Chef's Tips

  • Never let pesto meet the flame: Heat blackens basil and turns the perfume metallic. The pasta’s own warmth is all the cooking pesto will ever need.
  • The germ comes out: Halve the garlic clove and flick out the green germ; it carries the after-burn people wrongly blame on garlic itself.
  • No mortar? Chill everything, including the processor blade. Warm metal bruises basil in seconds and the pesto oxidizes to khaki.

Nutrition Facts

Calories
731.81
Protein
23.28g
Carbohydrates
85.11g
Fat
33.21g
Fiber
5.57g

Per serving

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Reading

Stories from Liguria

Long reads from our writers on the ground.

  1. The magazineItalian Riviera Travel Guide