Pesto Like the Genovese Eat It

Or, at least, so says Marcella Hazan, the doyenne of traditional Italian homecooking. And I have to hand it to her: after being underwhelmed by restaurant pesto and grossed out by bottled pesto for too many years, it took Marcella’s soothing, guiding hand to make me a pesto evangelist. When she instructed me, in her Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, to add new potatoes and green beans to the pesto and pasta mix, I cocked an eyebrow, but I obeyed — and was converted. Not only do the veggies add texture and layers to what can be a loud-tasting dish, but her version of pesto includes two other ingredients I’ve never seen in any other recipe: Romano cheese (along with the expected Parmesan-Reggiano), and butter (along with the expected olive oil). I can’t make or enjoy pesto, now, without them.

Don't forget us!

Basil, new potatoes and green beans, according to Hazan, are in season around the same time in the Province of Genoa, the birthplace of pesto. That makes them natural bedfellows. Here’s Hazan’s pesto-plus recipe, which has been winning converts at my place for some time. I think it’s one of the few cookbook recipes I’ve never modified in any way from the original. It was born perfect.

Put the following in a food processor and pulp (or use knife/mortar and pestle method):

2 cups packed basil leaves, washed in cold water and dried (I use ye olde salad spinner)

1 small garlic clove, minced

3 tbsp pine nuts (you can sub walnuts or almonds, but it just ain’t quite the same)

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1/2 cup olive oil

Scrape into a bowl, and add 1/2 cup grated Parmesan-Reggiano cheese (or more, to taste), 2 heaping tbsp grated Romano cheese (or more, to taste), and 3 tbsp soft, room-temperature (salted) butter. Mix until it coheres.

Dare to be different--go butter or go home.

While your pasta is boiling, bring a second, smaller pot of water to boil and add a few new or fingerling potatoes, chopped into thin rounds, and cook until tender (5 minutes or so, since they’re diced so small). Remove spuds with slotted spoon or basket, and add a large handful of yellow or green string beans to cook in the small pot (3 minutes usually does it — tender but crisp). Keep veggies warm in a large bowl under a lid until pasta is cooked and drained, then add pasta, then pesto, to the bowl and mix everything until incorporated. Serve with extra Parmesan cheese and crusty bread.

I use this recipe for 2 people, and if I’m serving 4, I double the pesto ingredients so the flavor isn’t diluted by the extra pasta. But this recipe is ostensibly for 6 servings (!), so that might work for you. You can also try roasting the veggies first, too, instead of boiling or steaming.

Recipe from Marcella Hazan’s Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, the one cookbook I would take to a desert island with me.

(Posted by Ranylt)