Pasta by region
Pasta from Liguria
Liguria cooks from a narrow strip of coast where basil grows sweet and small, and much of its pasta exists to carry pesto. The classic match is trofie, short hand-rolled twists, or trenette and linguine, tossed with basil pounded together with pine nuts, garlic, Parmigiano, pecorino, and Ligurian olive oil, often with potato and green beans cooked into the same pot. Corzetti are a regional signature, coins of dough pressed in a carved wooden stamp that leaves a pattern to hold a thin sauce. The region also has a quieter claim to fame: the diagonal-cut penna, today's penne, was patented in 1865 just outside Genoa. Ligurian sauces are herb-forward and barely cooked, made to taste of the garden rather than the stove.
The shapes of Liguria
| Shape | Family | Section | Cook (min) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Corzetti | Hand-formed regional | flat stamped disc | 3-10 |
| Fazzoletti | Sheets and broad cuts | thin flat square or rectangular sheet of rolled dough | n/a |
| Linguine | Long strands | flattened oval strand | 10-12 |
| Pansotti | Stuffed | triangular parcel of thin egg dough folded over a greens-and-cheese filling, sealed into a rounded, pot-bellied form | n/a |
| Penne | Tubes | tube cut on the diagonal | 10-12 |
| Trofie | Hand-formed regional | thin tapered twist, pointed at both ends | 9-11 |
Learn it from someone
- Enrica Monzani, A Small Kitchen in Genoa
Teaches Ligurian home cooking out of her own Genoa kitchen, hands-on classes in trofie, corzetti, pansotti, and pesto made the traditional way.
People who teach this, listed because we think they are good at it. We take nothing for these.