People always ask me what hooked me into Italian food, and the answer is the culture. The food is a massive part of that, but the way Italians live is incredible.
In Italy, even a simple pasta dish like this one is worth a whole day’s planning and preparation. For example, one of the first times I went to Italy, I was staying on a friend’s couch at his parents house and his mum started shaking me at five in the morning asking me if I want gnocchi for lunch! I looked at her like ‘Are you insane? Are we eating lunch at seven in the morning or something?’ But she would plan her whole day around that, she’d go to the market and get her potatoes, make the gnocchi and so on.
- 250g penne
- 4 small potatoes, scrubbed and cut into quarters, and blanched until just cooked
- 20 green beans, trimmed and cut in half
- freshly grated Parmesan
- 75g fresh basil, picked and washed
- 2 tbsp of pine nuts
- 1 garlic clove
- pinch of sea salt
- 200ml extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tbsp freshly grated Parmesan
For the pesto
