Trenette al Pesto con Fagiolini e Patate - Trenette with Pesto, Green Beans and Potatoes - Fresh Homemade Pasta without Pasta Maker - Eggless Pasta Recipe - Step by Step Recipe - Vegan option

Making Fresh Pasta is a dream come true for me. We are all crazy Pasta lovers in our house. You would think we are a bunch of Italians and not Indians. We love Italian Restaurants. I usually get the dried pasta when I make at home. Some times, I pick up some fresh pasta from the shop. And I know there is a huge difference between eating dried and fresh pasta.

I always thought to make Pasta at home, I need expensive gadgets. Well, you do for some types of Pasta. But to just make simple Fettuccine, Linguine or Trenette you do not need those gadgets. Well, the gadgets will sure make life easier and you will get perfect Pasta. But who is looking for perfection, right? It is the taste that matters (well, at least to me)!

Avant Garde Cookies are all making fresh homemade Pasta this week. Am excited that we picked this theme. Am really looking forward to what the other cookies have whipped up!

I was looking for recipes to make Eggless pasta. Most places would tell you that an eggless pasta is not pasta at all. That kind of scared me. That is when I read about Trenette. Though it sounds quite fancy and different, it kind of looks like Linguine. And traditionally Trenette is made without eggs! Problem Solved.



Trenette is a pasta popular in the Liguria region in Italy. And the combination for this pasta is Pesto sauce along with Green Beans and Potatoes - Trenette al Pesto con Fagiolini e Patate. Nope, I do not know Italian. That is where google Translate comes handy!



Making Fresh Pasta

Each 1/2 cup of flour makes about 1 plate of pasta once you add the veggies and sauce. This pasta will be sooo good there will be atleast one person asking for a second plate. So make accordingly :-)

Ingredients

All Purpose Flour 3.5 cups
Olive Oil 3 tbsp
Water 11/4 cup (used a little less than this)
Salt a little (not standard ingredient)

Other Ingredients for putting together the Pasta 

Potatoes 2 (pealed and chopped into cubes, then boiled till it is cooked)
Green Beans (Cut into smaller pieces and boiled till it is partly cooked)
Pesto Sauce (recipe below)
Parmigiano Reggiano (Parmesan) Cheese to serve



Method of Preparation

1. Take the flour in a bowl. Add salt and mix together. Make a well in the centre.

2. In a bowl, add the water and oil. Give it a stir with a fork.

3. Pour the oil-water mix to the well in the flour.

4. Gently stir the flour into the liquid till it becomes a sticky mass.

5. At this stage, go in with your hand and knead well till it forms a firm dough. Cover and let it rest for atleast 30 minutes.



6. Divide into 7 portions. Take one portion. Roll it into a ball.

7. Roll into a very thin rectangle. (about 20" * 8"). I found that sprinkling generous amounts of flour on both sides made the rolling easier. The photo below is from my first batch. My rectangle got better as I kept making it :-)





8. Using a knife or pizza cutter run long lines across the rolled dough.





9. Separate the strips and place them on a sheet pan to dry for a couple of minutes.



10. Sprinkle some more flour and collect them in a pile.



11. Heat a big pot of water. Salt it a little. Bring it to a boil.

12. Add the pasta to the water and cook for 2-3 minutes. Give it a quick stir once in between.



13. Drain the pasta out of the water. Keep the water covered till you are ready with the next batch of pasta.



14. Start working on the next portion of flour, roll it into a ball and repeat from step 7.

15. Take the drained pasta in a bowl. Add a couple of tbsp of Pesta sauce. Add a few green beans and cubes of boiled potatoes. Toss well. You can add some olive oil or pasta water to loosen this up a little.

16. Sprinkle some Parmigiano Reggiano on top and serve!



Pesto Sauce(used only half of this for the pasta, rest for some other recipe)

Ingredients

Basil a big bunch (about 75 gm)
Sunflower seeds 2 tbsp (traditionally pine nuts are used)
Garlic 2 cloves chopped
Parmigiano Reggiano (Parmesan) Cheese 1/2 cup
Extra Virgin Olive Oil 1/2 cup
Salt to taste

Method of Preparation

1. Pulse together all the ingredients till it is all mixed together.

2. If you have a food processor, add the olive oil little at a time from the top. Mine is just an Indian Mixie. So I added everything together.

3. Refrigerate covered till you need it. The sauce starts to darken a little if exposed to air. So if storing for long time, add a layer of oil to the top. The darkening does not affect the taste. So don't worry.

Vegan Option

While making Pesto, I made a Vegan version as well. Add a small bunch of basil, 1 clove of garlic, 3 tbsp of sunflower seeds, 1/4 cup of olive oil and a sprinkle of salt. It was actually pretty good. The Sunflower seeds gave it a nice texture. It tasted like the real deal. So now I am happy that I can make Pesto for myself without buying any fancy special ingredients.

Check out the other AGC thoughout this week 
Anusha, Jayanthi, Kavitha, Priya M, Radhika, Priya S