Tagliatelle with pesto
I decided to start doing the nursery, so I equipped with soil, pots, seeds and glass, I began to plant my herbs. First on the list is basil, this year I want to prepare a lot of pesto and freeze it. The pesto is very easy to do and you can freeze it for a whole year. What you see here was the last jar, then it’s time to start over again.
A very important thing, that few people know, is that for the preparation of pasta with pesto , the secret is in the potato! What I mean is that when you cook the pasta its important to add into the cooking water, half a potato cut into small dice. This will make the sauce creamier. Try and then tell me if I am right ….
Ingredients for pesto: 4 small jars
100 grams basil leaves
100 grams grated parmesan cheese
50 grams grated pecorino cheese
20 grams pine nuts , 1 clove garlic
E.V.O oil 1 cup
Salt
Pasta with pesto serve 4
500 grams of type linguine pasta ( or Tagliatelle pasta, as in photo)
2 handfuls of basil leaves
30 grams grated parmesan cheese
10 grams grated pecorino cheese, 5 grams pine nuts
¼ clove of garlic , salt and pepper
E.V.O. Oil a coffee cup
½ potato
8 cherry tomatoes
How it works:
Boil water for pasta with ½ potato peeled and cut into cubes. Grill the tomatoes in the oven with a drop of oil, a pinch of salt and pepper, to soften and set aside.
Combine basil leaves, parmesan, pecorino, garlic, pine nuts and e.v.o. oil in a blender ,until becomes a cream.
Cook the pasta (set aside a ladle of cooking water) and drain “al dente” (with all the potatoes). In a pan heat a little oil with the tomatoes, add the pesto, pasta (with crushed potato) and the ladle of cooking water. Mix all at high heat for 2 minutes and serve.
Now that’s an interesting twist, how often do you use potato in the cooking of pasta? I have never heard of that before. I understand that it would help thicken the sauce. The dice of potato must be small so that it will cook in the same time as the pasta. I purchased some hand made pesto at a supermarket in London about two weeks ago. It was revolting. I don’t know how they managed to get it so wrong. If you are now planting this seasons herbs, I am guessing the weather is Spring like in Umbria. Lucky you.
but after do you mix the potatoes with the pasta or you leave them?
You have to leave it, is very important to finely chop the patato, so once you drained the pasta, the potato becomes a cream.
Wow neat……. Thouroughly liked reading through your posting. Be interesting to find out how this advances, will take a note of your blog page and keep a look out for any updates. Keep up the nice work. Bye for now