Mandilli de Saea al Pesto (Genoa's Silk Handkerchiefs)

Genoa's lasagna is not baked: paper-thin squares of egg pasta, boiled a few at a time and folded onto the plate with basil pesto pounded from pine nuts, garlic, two cheeses and olive oil.

Edited by JP Lambiase

Why it works the kitchen science

Step by step

1. Step 1

   Make the dough. Mix the flour, eggs and salt, adding a spoonful of tepid water only if it will not come together, and knead 7 to 10 minutes, until smooth and slightly tacky. Wrap and rest at least 30 minutes.

2. Step 2

   Make the pesto. In a mortar, pound the garlic, salt and pine nuts to a paste, then the basil a handful at a time, then work in the oil. Stir in both cheeses by hand. (In a blender, pulse briefly so the basil does not heat and darken.)

3. Step 3

   Roll the dough a sixth at a time through a pasta machine, from the widest setting down, then by hand until you can see your fingers through it. Cut 6-inch squares and dust them with semolina.

4. Step 4

   Bring a wide pot of salted water to a boil with the olive oil. Cook the squares 2 to 4 at a time, about 4 to 5 minutes, and lift them out with a slotted spoon.

5. Step 5

   Loosen the pesto with a few spoonfuls of the cooking water. Spread some on warm plates, drape and fold the squares on top like dropped handkerchiefs, spoon over the rest and serve at once with extra Parmigiano.

Tips

• For the Ligurian everyday version, boil a cubed potato and a handful of green beans in the same water before the pasta and fold them in with the pesto.
• Pine nuts are seeds, not tree nuts, but many people with nut allergies still avoid them; leave them out if anyone at the table is unsure.
• Keep leftover pesto covered with a thin layer of oil in the fridge and use it within a few days.

The rules people argue about

What the sources agree on, what they don't, and what is just a good story.

• The name means silk handkerchiefs. Documented (Visit Genoa; The Pasta Project).
• Dressed with pesto. Documented (Visit Genoa).
• Lasagne dressed with pesto in 1863. Documented (Wikipedia, citing Ratto's La Cuciniera Genovese).
• "Ancient origins, from the days of the Republic." Folklore in the sense that it is the tourism office's claim with no recipe or date behind it; The Pasta Project ties the name to Genoa's silk trade and says pairing with pesto came around the mid-1800s.
• The oldest pesto recipe. Disputed: Wikipedia lists Emanuele Rossi's book (1852) and Ratto's (1863).
• Is it lasagna? Disputed as a label: Visit Genoa says "similar to lasagnette"; The Pasta Project says made like lasagne sheets, rolled thinner.
• Baked pesto lasagna is Genoese. Disputed: modern Italian recipes bake pesto with béchamel and mozzarella (Dissapore); the Genoa sources we read serve the sheets boiled.
• Potatoes and green beans. Folklore as a rule: common in Ligurian pesto pasta, not in the sources above.