Pesto can be found everywhere these days, but making your own still yields the best flavour and best of all, you can customise the texture (or indeed the ratio of the ingredients) to your own tastes. There are no definitive recipes… just whatever tastes good to you.

I had planned to use my home-grown basil to make the pesto, but the current crop is pathetically small. So, to fulfil my desire for pesto I bought a few packs of the supermarket stuff and supplemented it with as many leaves as I could scrounge off my poor little plants. (I’ve since discovered that they were root-bound, so they now live in much bigger pots.)

One of the traditional Ligurian ways of serving pesto is on troife pasta. Troife is a simple, hand-rolled pasta shape that looks like little twisted spirals–also reminiscent of a unicorn’s horn–which cleverly catches pesto in its spirals and grooves. If you fancy trying to make your own trofie, directions (with photos) can be found here.

I don’t know who first had the idea of adding green beans and potatoes to pesto and pasta, but they are an unsung hero. This was such a great combination, and it could only get better if you leave your pesto coarse and get a different flavour combination with each forkful. So fresh and peppery from the pesto with smooth, almost buttery slices of potato and a nice crisp bite from the beans.

Absolutely delicious and so easy to do, too.

Trofie al Pesto

Serves 2 greedy eaters.

200g dried trofie pasta
4 new potatoes (about 80g)
80g fine green beans
pesto (see recipe below)
grated Parmesan to serve.

Cook the pasta in salted, boiling water according to the package directions. (I gave mine 13 minutes.) Slice the potatoes into thin rounds, approximately 0.5cm thick. Half-way through cooking add the potato slices to the pan, return to the boil and keep cooking. Three minutes from the end of cooking, add the fine beans.

When time is up, reserve a couple of tablespoons of cooking water and drain the pasta well. Return to the pan and stir in the pesto, and if needed, the reserved cooking water.

Divide between two warmed bowls, sprinkle with Parmesan, and enjoy!

Pesto

40g basil leaves (this came from about 75g of basil)
1 clove garlic, chopped finely
3 tablespoons best extra-virgin olive oil
1 heaped tablespoon pine nuts
pinch of sea salt
1 tablespoon grated Pecorino
20g Parmesan, grated

Put the basil, garlic, olive oil, pine nuts and salt in a food processor and pulse until combined. You can leave this coarse or go smoother. it’s your choice!

Transfer to a bowl and stir in the grated cheeses. If not using immediately, cover the surface with a film of olive oil and press a sheet of clingfilm (plastic wrap) down onto the pesto to keep the air out.

Rather than throwing out the basil stems, you can make basil oil with them. Just infuse with some olive oil over a very low heat until you see the first bubbles appear. Turn out the heat, stick on a lid, and leave overnight. Strain and store in the fridge. Keeps for about a week, to be on the safe side.

This is my entry for this week’s edition of Weekend Herb Blogging, hosted by Archana from Archana’s Kitchen.

The round-up can be found here.