The Original Pasta with Pesto

This is a more involved Cooks Illustrated recipe from the July August 2013 edition. Here is the link. You may need an online subscription to view the recipe. http://www.cooksillustrated.com/recipes/detail.asp?docid=40063

This recipe is very interesting for many reasons:

• The pine nuts and unpeeled garlic are toasted in a 10-inch skillet. The toasted garlic had less of a bite and strong flavor as the fresh garlic does.
• Boiled Potatoes are added
• Potatoes are cooked in a large quantity of water. This water is then used to cook the pasta
• A large quantity of pasta water is added back to the pasta, pesto and potatoes (over 1 cup)
• The pasta and all it’s ingredients are beaten together as the final step. I have seen this kind of beating of the Risotto ala Milanese by our friends the Nebuloni’s in Milan.

I made this without the green beans and I used mini penne instead of the gemelli.

It tasted heavenly. The double batch I made was sent home as leftovers. Pasta with Pesto is a family favorite, so it was natural to make enough of this new version for leftovers.