TROFIE AL PESTO DI PENTEMA CON BACON AFFUMICATO
trofie in white pentema pesto with smoked bacon
Once upon a time people used to call a similar mix of ingredients, cream and pig, ‘Carbonara.’ Some still do. But this isn’t Carbonara, it’s the lesser-spotted White Pesto from Pèntema, a village in the Ligurian Appennine Hills.
The more traditional version of this recipe was similar to Salsa di Noci, made with milk-soaked bread, rather than cream, as a base. The more modern version (at a guess, I’d say dating from the late 1970s-80s) substitutes cream for the milk and bread. I’ve added fried smoked bacon and pistacchio nuts for some extra flavour and texture!
As a lifelong trofie sceptic I’m quite pleased at the final result here - it’s one of a few dishes which is teaching me how versatile and flexible trofie can be, which are easily on a par with orecchiette.
WHAT YOU'LL NEED TO DO
(scroll down for the full method)
prepare the ingredients
fry the bacon
warm the cream
make the sauce
boil the pasta
combine sauce and pasta
trofie in white pentema pesto with smoked bacon
INGREDIENTS
FOR FOUR PEOPLE
• 1-2 garlic cloves
• 30g (1oz) pinoli (pine nuts)
• 30g (1oz) parmesan
• 3 rashers smoked bacon
• 40ml (1.4fl oz) EVO
• 100ml (3.4fl oz) single cream
• pistacchio nuts
• Salt, black pepper to taste
PASTA
500g (18oz) fresh/dry trofie
MANTECATURA
none, simply combine
METHOD
Begin by preparing the ingredients - peeling and chopping the garlic, grating the cheese, crushing the pistacchio nuts and weighing the pinoli. This is actually a pesto where you might as well go ‘old school’ and use a pestle and mortar, and crush the garlic and pinoli together with a pinsh of salt to make a paste.
Fry the bacon and then tear or chop it up into small pieces, them set aside.
As you begin to boil the pasta, start to very gently warm the cream in a pasta pan, and stir the garlic and pinoli paste into that. Don’t let it boil or even bubble, just a gentle warming through, as you gradually sprinkle on the parmesan and stir it in.
When the trofie are seconds away from being perfectly cooked (for me that’s on the chewier, well-done side of ‘al dente’), fish them out of the cooking water and add them directly to the cream sauce.
Toss to combine, and plate immediately, adding bacon and a sprinkle of crushed pistacchio nuts to each portion.
NUTRITION per serving
