Trenette are similar to linguine, but a bit thinner -- they look like flattened spaghetti. Though some say that the practice of cooking vegetables and pasta together arose in the western part of Liguria and spread throughout the region, it also developed in other parts of Italy. Puglia's orecchiette coi broccoletti come to mind. To serve 4:
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Ingredients:
- 3/4 pound (320 g) dried trenette or other pasta (whole wheat pasta is perfect here)
- 1/4 pound (100 g) tender string beans
- 2 medium-sized potatoes
- 1/3 to 1/2 cup pesto sauce (see link below)
- More grated Parmigiano for dusting
Preparation:
Instructions for making pesto sauce.Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. While it's heating, peel and dice the potatoes, and wash and cut the string beans in two. When the water comes to a boil add the vegetables and cook until almost done, about 10 minutes. Add the pasta (trenette cook in 3-5 minutes -- if you're using spaghetti instead, which take 10-12 minutes, add them to the water that much sooner), and when it is still slightly al dente transfer the mixture to a bowl. Stir in the pesto, which you will have diluted with a tablespoon or two of pasta water, dust with the grated Parmigiano, and serve, with a light white wine, for example Vermentino or Pigato.
Variation:
You can also make trenette coi fagiolini, trenette with string beans, by following the instructions given above but increasing the pasta to 1 1/4 pounds and the string beans to 3/4 pound, and omitting the potato (if you decide to include it, reduce the string beans by a proportionate amount). In this case use about 1/3 cup of pesto sauce (diluted with a tablespoon or two of the pasta water), and dust the pasta with abundant freshly grated Parmigiano before serving. This would work nicely with a zesty, light red wine, for example Rossese di Dolceacqua or Valpolicella Classico.
