Pasta with basil, pine nut and cheese sauce.

Ideally, to make perfect pesto you need basil from Pra’ (a Pdo product), a district of Genoa, the delicate extra-virgin olive oil from the Ligurian Riviera and garlic from Vessalico (Imperia), which is milder and easier to digest. The mortar and pestle are fundamental.

Especially if you live abroad that is not so easy….so this is our shortcut

For the Pasta it is impossible to find fresh Trofie…so we use dry Trofie or Spaghetti or Linguine or Farfalle / Fusilli /Penne

For the Pesto if you do now want to do your own….but is quite easy…..you can buy a premade, we use Tigullio or Star and Liddle has a very nice one too (Baresa or Italiano) the original is green pesto!

Pasta al pesto traditional recipe

Ingredients for 4 servings

Time 30 mins

350 g fresh trofie
40 g grated grana cheese
30 g grated pecorino sardo cheese
15 g pine nuts 
30 basil leaves
garlic 
extra-virgin olive oil 
cooking salt

Trofie al pesto: how to

Wash and dry the basil leaves. With a mortar and pestle crush some of the leaves, gradually adding more (makes it easier to crush them).

Add the pine nuts a little at a time, then slices of garlic and a pinch of cooking salt. Mash the ingredients until smooth.

Add the cheeses and mix well.

Drizzle 40 g of oil into it as you crush until homogeneous and compact. Cook the pasta in plenty of salted water. Dilute the pesto with a bit of the cooking water to make it creamier, then drain
the pasta and add the sauce. Garnish with some whole basil leaves and freshly grated cheese.