The best substitute for pasta with pesto
Say wine, snacks or haute cuisine and the gourmands at online food magazine FavorFlav know where to drink, how to eat it and what to cook. This time our cheffies serve you: Green noodles from Peru.
Katinka Lansink Dodero inherited her love for Peruvian cuisine from her parents. In Mi casa Peru, she not only tells beautiful stories about this magical cuisine but also shares the tastiest recipes for colorful comfort food and cocktails that are easy to prepare. And nice: with easily obtainable ingredients. Tallarines is a Peruvian twist on Italian pasta pesto.
Preparation: 40 min
Servings: 4
INGREDIENTS
spaghettini (my favorite is De Cecco no. 11) or spaghetti
50 g basil (including stems!)
25 g spinach
30 g broad beans
30 g good Parmesan cheese
30 g pecorino
25 g pine nuts
2 cloves of garlic
70 ml olive oil
pinch of salt and ground black pepper
Katinka: “This is a Peruvian-Italian fusion dish, brought to Peru by boat in the nineteenth century. This pasta was often made at my abuelos‘ (grandma and grandpa) home according to a modified recipe. This dish is often eaten in Peru with a Milanese (breaded veal) served on top. In my family, the tallarines were always eaten with thin slices of hare, 2 centimeters thick, quickly seared on top of the pasta. This looks nicer than a piece of meat on the pasta. A lot of ground black pepper was sprinkled on top as a variant of the spicy ají. I always eat the tallarines without meat. In the past, when you couldn't buy basil in the Netherlands, my mother bought large bags of basil from a farmer who grew it. I always helped make the pesto, and I remember the whole house smelled of basil, really a scent from my youth. When I moved into a room, the first thing I invested in was a Moulinex Masterchef for a hundred guilders. At that time, a fortune for me, but then I could at least make fresh pesto, so the money was worth it many times over. My ’Chef Mouli” has been my most loyal kitchen companion for 25 years.”
How to make the Tallarines Verdes
1. Cook the pasta al dente in about 10 minutes over medium heat.
2. Put all the other ingredients except for pepper and salt in the food processor and add enough black pepper and salt to taste as soon as it becomes a liquid paste.
3. Mix the pasta with the pesto and serve.
4. Tip: Katinka always makes more pesto so she can store it in a sterilized glass jar with a layer of olive oil on top of the pesto. The pesto can be frozen or kept unopened in the fridge for three weeks.
Title: Mi Casa Peru
Author: Katinka Lansink Dodero
Price: €25
Publisher: Luitingh-Sijthoff
