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Monday, January 10, 2011

Nigella's Pasta alla Genovese

Ok this is my last one and then i've caught up!
I'm a big fan of pesto and thought this looked like a great quick dinner option.
http://www.lifestylefood.com.au/recipes/14858/pasta-alla-genovese
Whilst looking for frozen spinach at the supermarket (sold out?!? - i always buy fresh but decided it was time to try frozen) i stumbled across frozen basil! So frozen basil is what i used. I do have basil in my garden but then none would be left if i picked enough and i was planning on buying a couple of bunches in the fruit shop until i saw this.
Maybe it wasn't the best choice - although it was still green it had lost that vibrancy you see with fresh basil. And the flavour was nice but i think the fresh basil would be better.
This was also an unusual dish in that you added potato to the water first. This results in the end texture being quite strange. Once the initial reaction i did begin to enjoy the texture, overall quite a wholesome tasting vegetarian dish. Please note my husband served up (i was feeding our bub) and decided to "pretty" the dishes up for a photo!

3 comments:

  1. Sounds very interesting! How would you describe the texture? :)

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  2. I would probably best describe the texture as floury, the broken down potatoes really stuck to the pasta along with loads of flavour.

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  3. This is an authentic Italian dish. I had it in Genoa at a small restaurant in a narrow laneway - had to have been Nonna's cooking. I agree that it could be a bit floury but that would depend on what potato you were using. We make it at home using Paul's pesto (available from our green grocer in Melbourne), french beans and "Dutch Cream"potatoes which hold together well. Also we add a whole heap of parmesan!!

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