“Christmas with your family and Easter with whomever you want”. Thus says the famous proverb linked to the two most popular holidays in Italy. While at Christmas, it’s tradition to master every aspect, at Easter, the celebrations are usually more relaxed and without giving up a breakfast of cheese, focaccia and boiled eggs, you can still amaze your guests at the lunch on table (often, depending on the weather, outdoors) with less conventional fare.
We’ve created a very simple and very versatile pesto using fresh fava beans and our organic extra virgin olive oil that is perfect for friends at Easter.
You could use this fresh pesto to make bruschetta with toasted Tuscan bread. You could serve it as a dip accompanied with triangles of toasted flatbread or you could follow our recipe for a tasty and seasonal vegetarian first course!
Fettuccine with fresh broad bean pesto
Ingredients for 4 people
240g of fresh egg fettuccine
300g of fresh shelled and peeled broad beans (about 650g of pods)*
60g of Parmigiano Reggiano (or pecorino for a stronger flavor)
40g of la Maliosa Aurinia organic extra virgin olive oil
salt
black pepper
1 clove of garlic
8 fresh mint leaves
Method
To make the fresh broad bean pesto, start by shelling and peeling the beans. Remove the inner skin and place them inside a blender. Wash and dry the mint leaves and add them to the blender with the beans. Add the Parmesan, a little salt, the ground pepper and the peeled and cored garlic clove. Pour in the oil and start blending until you get a creamy pesto. Bring a saucepan to boil with water. Add salt and cook the fettuccine. Pour the pesto into a large bowl and mix it with two tablespoons of the water you cooked the pasta in. Drain the pasta and add to the bowl with the pesto. Stir to combine everything and serve immediately.
* you can also use frozen broad beans.
