If you like basil and you have already been in this area or you will come soon to the Cinque Terre, you will discover and enjoy Pesto sauce with Trofie, trenette, gnocchi or lasagne.
I thought to give you the recipe in case you wish to try at home.
Lorenzo, a very good friend of us and a gourmet made Pesto and Bart (my husband) prepared “gnocchi”…..mmmmm…..
These ingredients are for 4p:
– fresh basil (only the leaves)
– 70% grated Parmesan cheese and 30% Pecorino cheese
– 1 big glove of garlic
– coarse salt
– good quality olive oil
Mix all the ingredients in an electrical mixer, except the oil.
Afterwards, add the oil and turn it gently: it has to become very smooth.
Leave a coat of oil on top in order to avoid the green color might get darker.
Preparation of “Gnocchi”:
– 1kg potatoes, 200g flour, salt, 1 egg
Boil the potatoes and peel them when they are still hot, squash them and mix gently the rest of the ingredients and form a big “sausage”.
Divide the “sausage” into thinner “sticks” and cut small parts of 2cm…Pass them on the attribute to give the them the real “gnocchi” shape and cook them in boiling (en salted) water until they come up on the surface: this operation takes only one minute !
In a big bowl put the pesto on the bottom and gently the sifted gnocchi, mix it……Mmmmmmm !!!!
Buon appetito !!!! Here you can see Lorenzo and his fabulous pesto 🙂
“Spaghetti alle vongole”
Preparation for 4p:
Clean the vongole under running water and make sure they don’t contain any sand.
Let them open in a large pan and filter afterwards the jus. Also in a large pan warm up 2 gloves of garlic and chili peppers in very good vergin olive oil, add the vongole jus, one glass of white wine and stir it. In the meanwhile cook thick spaghetti in salted water (360 gr for 4p), add the vongole, cherry tomatoes in pieces and fresh chopped parsley: when the spaghetti are ready (al dente !!), mix them in the pan with the vongole and let them absorb the taste of the sauce.
Buon appetito !!