Pesto | johnageddes

Whenever I visit my friends in San Michele, Italy, Gloria makes me this pasta dish and I love it. Adis Pasalic and I used to get a similar version of it at a restaurant in Zenica, Bosnia. Today I saw the new potatoes and green beans at the market and decided to indulge.

This is not really a recipe, but an ad hoc version of how to make Pasta Genovese that is close to what Gloria taught me. It is delicious and very easy.

Ingredients: (I dont measure, use what you think you need)

Potatoes (sliced in 1 inch cubes or thereabouts)

Green Beans

Pasta ( Tagliatele is the traditional pasta for this dish but I usually use penne)

Pesto (you can make your own or buy a jar)

Pine nuts, lightly toasted

Method:

Put a big pot of water with some salt in it on the stove to get boiling. While the water is coming to a boil you can cut up the potatoes into cubes, prepare the beans, and lightly roast the pine nuts under the broiler (watch them).

Throw (gently) the potatoes into the boiling water and boil for about 5 minutes. Add the pasta and boil for about 9 minutes. Add the beans (I cut them up into one inch pieces with a scissors into the water). Boil for another 2-3 minutes or until the potatoes are cooked and the pasta is al dente.

Drain. Add the pesto and pine nuts and mix. Add salt to taste.

Sprinkle with some good quality Parmesan cheese.

This is so easy and tastes so good!

ADDENDUM: I had this with a glass of OPEN Cab2-Merlot VQA wine from the Niagara Peninsula. Generally I don’t like Ontario Red wines but this one is really good and has drawn me from California Cabs. $12.95 at the LCBO or Wine Rack (where you can get a case at $10.95 a bottle!)

I saw some fresh green beans on the market today and some new potatoes and it made me think of a pasta dish that my friend Gloria always serves me when I visit their family in Italy. The Genovese word comes from Genoa, a city in northern Italy on the Mediterranean Sea where, probably, this recipe either originated or was adopted as local. There is another meat dish with the same name. Don’t ask me how these two very different pastas have the same name.

There are variations on this but here is how I have ended up doing it. A very simple meal, vegetarian, making use of fresh vegetables from the fall garden.

Pasta Genovese

Ingredients:

New potatoes

Green beans

Pine nuts ( lightly toasted in the oven)

Fusili pasta ( I use this but I think that the recipe may be more “original” with a long thin pasta like spaghetti or tagliatelle.)

Pesto (I buy it ready made up and use about half a jar in the recipe. You can make your own from olive oil, pine nuts and basil if you are adventuresome.)

Parmesan cheese on top. (when I visit Gloria in Italy she always takes me to a local market where I can buy a huge hunk of aged Parmesan to bring home with me.)

Shopping for Parmesan at the San Michele grocer.

Method:

Prepare the potatoes and beans. Scrub the potatoes and cut them into cubes, maybe one inch in size and cut the ends off the beans and slice them into smaller bits.

In a large pot add a tablespoon or so of sea salt to cold water. Put the potatoes into the pot, cover it and bring it to a boil. Let it boil for a couple of minutes then add the green beans. Let them boil for three or four minutes then throw in the pasta and cook it for about 8-10 minutes or until the pasta is “al dente”.

Drain the lot and dump it into a large bowl. Add half the bottle of pesto and turn the ingredients in it until coated.

Serve it onto a plate with grated parmesan cheese. (and a few tomatoes for colour.)

I don’t measure the ingredients, just throwing in a balanced lot. Leftovers store well in the fridge and are even more tasty the second day when the pesto has leeched into the potatoes.

Thinking of you, Gloria, as I enjoy this treat.