Linguine al pesto alla genovese with potatoes and green beans

dairy Italian · easy · 30 min, including 20 hands-on

The Genoese way: an uncooked basil pesto with pine nuts, kosher Grana and pecorino, loosened off the heat with linguine water, with potatoes and green beans cooked in the same pot as the pasta. Fresh basil fragrance, without cream or cooking the sauce.

Ingredients for two

Method

1. Bring 2.5 litres of water to the boil in the covered large saucepan, and immediately chill the small blender's bowl and blade in the fridge. Meanwhile, peel the potato and cut into 1.5 cm dice, then trim and halve the green beans. Pick the basil leaves, discarding thick stalks, rinse and gently dry in a tea towel or salad spinner, as residual water would dilute the pesto. Grate both cheeses very finely.
2. Put the garlic, pine nuts and a few coarse salt crystals, 1 g, in the cold blender bowl; the salt acts as an abrasive. Pulse three or four times for 1 second each to make a coarse paste. Add the basil and 30 g oil (3 tbsp). Pulse briefly, scraping the sides once, until green but still finely textured. The bowl should stay cold to the touch.
3. Transfer to a mixing bowl large enough for the pasta and vegetables. Stir in the Grana, then pecorino and the remaining 30 g oil with a spoon, without blending further, to make a thick, supple cream. Cover with a small plate while cooking to limit oxidation.
4. Salt the water with 25 g coarse salt, 10 g per litre, and add the diced potato. After 5 minutes, add the linguine. Add the green beans 6 minutes before the end of the packet's al dente time, usually 9–11 minutes. Everything should finish together: a knife tip should pass through the potato while the beans stay green and crisp. Two minutes before the end, ladle about 180 ml water, one and a half ladlefuls, into a bowl. Cool for 1 minute, then stir 4 tbsp (60 g) into the pesto to loosen it.
5. Drain the pasta and vegetables together without rinsing and immediately add to the pesto bowl, off the heat. Toss with tongs for 30 seconds, adding the remaining reserved water, about 120 g, by the spoonful until the sauce coats the strands and vegetables without clumps of cheese. Serve immediately: the pesto should stay green and smell of fresh basil.

On your plate

Cooking tips

Genoese trenette are not available locally, but linguine are close relatives; fresh trofie also work if you find them. With a mortar, crush the garlic and coarse salt first, then the pine nuts, work in the basil in small handfuls, and add the cheeses and oil last. Never put pesto into a hot pan; finishing off the heat is the essential exception to the rule of finishing pasta in its sauce. If made in the morning, refrigerate in a small closed jar under a drizzle of oil and use the same day.

Equipment : large 5-litre saucepan, small blender, mixing bowl, fine grater, clean tea towel or salad spinner, colander, tongs

Pesto genovese from the Consorzio del Pesto Genovese, using pecorino romano instead of fiore sardo, with trenette avvantaggiate—pasta, potatoes and green beans cooked together—a Ligurian tradition.