March 17: Mortar and pestle are ready for #worldpestoday!
What about the pleasure to prepare something traditional and healthy? I remember my grandmother preparing this fresh pasta following her mother’s recipe. A very old dish that makes everyone happy. Very easy to prepare, perfect for a sunday lunch.
If you don’t find high quality ready pesto and besciamella, prepare them yourself: for pesto, mix basil leaves, pine nuts, Pecorino Romano cheese, garlic clove, salt and pepper and extra virgin olive oil. The traditional recipe want it to be prepared using mortar and pestle; for besciamella, in a medium saucepan heat butter until melted. Remove from the heat, add flour and stir until smooth over medium heat. Do not allow to brown. Then add gradually hot milk season with nutmeg and a pinch of salt, whisking continuously until smooth and bring to a boil. Use a wooden spoon to stir!
Serves 4
250 g fresh lasagne sheets; 90 g pesto; 1 bunch asparagus; 1 bunch green beans; 1 bunch turnip tops; 500 g besciamella; 50 g sun-dried tomatoes; 1 garlic clove; 1 teaspoon chili pepper; extra virgin olive oil; salt, aromatic herbs and Cyprus black salt.
- Snap the woody hands off asparagus stalks and throw them away.
- Heat a wok until it’s hot with a tablespoon of oil, crushed garlic and chili pepper. Add cut asparagus and a cup of vegetable stock and simmer for 20 mins.
- Use another wok or pan to stir green beans in the same way as asparagus. Cook for 15 mins.
- Prepare the sauce: break the dried tomatoes into pieces (keep some aside for decorating). Mix together pesto, besciamella and tomatoes in a bowl.
- Preheat the oven to 180°. Oil a baking dish and cover with a thin layer of pesto and besciamella. Layer each lasagne sheet with the sauce and then cut it in two: fill respectively with green beans/asparagus and turnip tops. Roll the cannelloni and put in the baking dish. You will obtain almost 20 cannelloni. Add the sauce between them.
- Finish with a layer of sauce, the left tomatoes, aromatic herbs, black pepper and more olive oil drizzled over.
- Bake for 40 minutes. Let stand 5 mins before serving.
For this recipe I used Il Pesto di Pra’
