By MIHOKO TERADA/ Staff Writer
April 6, 2023 at 07:00 JST
Pasta with Genovese pesto sauce (Photo by Atsuko Shimamura)
Editor’s note: In the Taste of Life series, cooking experts, chefs and others involved in the field of food introduce their special recipes intertwined with their paths in life.
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The cooking expert duo Tatsuya and Shino has unusual honeymoon to say the least. Shino had imagined a relaxing trip in a resort and was surprised by the itinerary her keen traveler husband Tatsuya had drawn up.
The destination was roughly “Europe.” He reserved flight tickets to northern Italy but did not make any hotel bookings. The couple rented a car and traveled to wherever their fancy took them.
At the start, they drove south hoping to enjoy seafood, but missed a right turn and went straight until a signboard with the word “Genova” came into view. When they realized it was the town where Genovese pesto, the sauce known in Japan simply as “Genovese” originated, they decided to stop by.
They arrived at a bustling port town with few tourists. They couldn't help but notice heaps of basil on sale at the market.
“The locals know the best ways to enjoy the local produce,” says Tatsuya. The couple ambled around asking shop staff and locals about places that served good food.
They were told about a shop selling prepared food where customers could also eat on the spot. So they tried gnocchi with Genovese pesto there. The grainy sauce offered a strong aroma of basil and spiciness of the garlic tingled on the tongue. It was quite unlike the creamy and mild Genovese served in Japan. It was a nice surprise and they left impressed.
Besides Genova, the couple traveled to Nice in southern France. They signed up for a local cooking class and cooked what they learned at the kitchen attached to their hotel.
“Cooking is close to language,” Tatsuya says. “Even if you do not speak the language, you can get along if there is cooking in between. It has such power.”
The memorable Genovese pasta is recreated this week. Fresh basil and garlic are dropped in the food processer as they are and turned into a paste that is mixed with the pasta. “I want people to feel as if they have traveled to Genova,” says Tatsuya.
Gucci Fuufu is a team of cooking experts whose books include “Iroiro tsukutte kitakedo yappari kono aji” (We’ve cooked various dishes but this is what we come back to) from Fusosha Publishing. The website in Japanese offering their recipes is called “Ryorika Gucci Fuufu no RECIPE BOOK” (Recipe book of cooking experts Gucci Fuufu).
BASIC COOKING METHOD
Main ingredients (Serves 2)
160 grams Casarecce pasta, 1 potato (150 grams), 5 common beans (ingen) (40 grams), 1 Tbsp powdered cheese, bit of salt and pepper, Seasoning A (40 grams fresh basil, 20 grams pine nut (matsunomi), 2 cloves garlic, 20 grams powdered cheese, 100 ml olive oil, 1/3 tsp salt, bit of pepper, two pinches sugar)
1. Peel potato and cut into dices 7 to 8 mm on a side. Immerse in water. Cut off both ends of beans and cut at an angle into pieces 4 to 5 cm long. Remove shoot from garlic.
2. Place all ingredients for Seasoning A in food processor and blend.
3. Bring generous amount of water in pot to a boil and add salt (1 percent of water in pot). Add potato and when they become tender, add beans. Remove when both are done.
4. Cook pasta in the same hot water. Remove after specified time, drain and place in bowl. (Keep cooking water aside.)
5. To the bowl with pasta, add sauce from 2, boiled vegetables from 3 and powdered cheese and mix. Add salt and pepper to taste. (When sauce does not coat pasta easily, add some water used to cook pasta.)
6. Serve on plate and sprinkle with some powdered cheese (not listed above).
About 920 kcal and 3.4 grams salt per portion
(Nutrient calculation by the Nutrition Clinic of Kagawa Nutrition University)
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