21 Feb 2014 Pasta with pesto sauce: a homemade recipe

Last month we proposed an Italian cooking classic: pizza. Today, however, we want to introduce another traditional Italian meal, which is typical of the Ligurian region but has by now become a true and real strong suit of the entire Italian cooking culture: fresh pasta with pesto sauce.

The pesto pasta recipe that we are proposing is by Alessia Bianchi, author of the blog “Dolcezze di nonna papera” and founding member of Eatable, a cultural wine and food association located in Lake Como.

Alessia Bianchi was born in a small village on the shores of Lake Como where culture and tradition have been handed down for generations. She has a degree in philosophy and worked for 12 years in the human resources field taking care of recruitment. However, in 2013, she takes a brave decision and drops everything to devote herself 100% at her true passion being food and wine.

Here is her experience accompanied by a delicious recipe.

Last spring, while walking in the woods in my area, I smelled a definite garlic scent. I did not know where it came from but my friend showed me the plants and this is how I discovered wild garlic. Otherwise known as wild garlic (Allium ursinum L.), it is a bulbous, herbaceous, perennial plant that is not very tall, has large leaves and a pungent smell of garlic.

I informed myself and find out that ever since ancient times, man uses it as an aromatic vegetable (such as onion, garlic and leek). I collected a bit, quite a bit I would say, since there was plenty of it and I wanted to stock up. I tried to use it a little as garlic for cooking and a little to make ligurian pesto sauce, that I will need later as condiment for the homemade tagliatelle.

I like the fact of making a dish with my own hands and in this case, there is also the labor of the harvest.

How to make the pasta

Ingredients per person:

100 gr of flour

1 egg

Directions:

Mix flour with the egg until desired mixture is obtained.

I used the famous pasta machine to form and cut the tagliatelle.

How to make pesto sauce (also known as “Pesto Genovese”)

Ingredients:

Wild garlic leaves

Pine nuts

Extra virgin olive oil

Cooking salt

Grated Pecorino cheese

Directions:

Wash and dry the wild garlic leaves.

Put everything in a blender with a handful of pine nuts, salt, Pecorino cheese and a little bit of oil. Turn on at full speed. Add oil a little at a time until desired consistency is reached.

Cook the pasta in boiling salted water. Drain and drizzle with pesto sauce.