How to make the Minestrone genovese al pesto:
"Pesto": the word pesto means "pounded," as
traditionally pesto was made by grinding the ingredients together by hand
in a marble mortar and pestle.
To make the pesto, place all ingredients except oil and pasta in a marble mortar. Process, to
a puree. While processing in the mortar, gradually add oil until absorbed.
Toss with the trenette. Serve hot. If you don’t have a
marble mortar, use a food processor or blender, the resulting pesto will be very
good also, even if not at the same level of high culinary delight.
Have the pesto ready (using the recipe above) before starting.
Drain the beans and combine with
the water in a Dutch oven. Bring to a boil and cook at a high heat for 10
minutes. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, for another 5 minutes.
Add the potatoes, squash, zucchini, tomato
and mushrooms and cook over medium heat, stirring from time to time. After
about 15 minutes, add the carrot, celery, garlic and onion. Simmer for
another 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the olive oil and salt.
Continue simmering, pressing the beans and potatoes against the side of
the pot to make the soup dense.
After another 15 minutes cooking, add the
pasta and simmer for 9 or 10 minutes until it is al dente. Just as the
heat is turned off, stir in the pesto. Let the soup cool until it is tepid
and serve it with drizzles of olive oil on top.
By: Carol Katz !
Serves 6
A bit of history of Italian cuisine:
For centuries Ligurian sailors plied the seas as part of
the spice trade, bringing to Europe the exotic products of the Far East and
Africa. When they returned from their long, arduous voyages, the sailors had had
their fill of fish and spicy food. What they wanted instead was fare that spoke
of their homeland, made from vegetables fresh from the gardens and farms that
cling to the Ligurian hillsides. As a result, the dish that is now most closely
identified with this region is pasta al pesto, noodles bathed in an intensely
green and fragrant sauce.
The pesto recipe took the form we know in the mid-nineteenth century: the
recipe first appears in writing in the Ratto brothers’ 1865 Cuciniera
genovese, where it is described as "pesto is a mince of garlic and basil"
and used as a sauce with which "to dress all varieties of pasta".
Ligurians almost make a religion of their devotion to
pesto sauce and its main ingredient, fresh basil. While they generally favor
fresh herbs in their cooking, it is basil that inspires the most interest.
There is, however, no uniformity of opinion as to the best pesto recipes or its
best uses. Every village, and for that matter probably every family, has its own
recipe for pesto sauce and its favorite shape of pasta to use with the sauce.
For example, the Genoese prefer a sharp, pungent pesto sauce which they serve
with ravioli filled with veal and cheese. Many people opt for a mild pesto
sauce, sometimes with cream or butter added. In many areas, the preferred "pasta
al pesto"
is trenette, a sort of plump local version of linguine. In still other areas,
they dispense with the pasta altogether and add the pesto to their local version
of minestrone or to fish soup.
The basic ingredients of pesto sauce are common to all
these recipes: fresh basil leaves, cheese (either Parmigiano Reggiano or
Pecorino), pine nuts or walnuts, garlic, olive oil and salt and pepper. The
great debate, and the great fun, about pesto is deciding on the proper
proportions with which to combine these ingredients and whether to add any
extras. Ultimately, with some experimentation, you can make pesto that suits
your tastes exactly, just like every cook in Liguria.
One thing to remember: to make a true pesto you need to use a marble mortar, try
yourself and you will see the difference in the pesto
|
