Cinque de Terre's Ligurian Trofie al Pesto is a delicious homemade twisted crescent shaped pasta tossed with an easy basil pesto sauce. The texture of trofie pasta is addictively chewy, fun to eat and they are the perfect vessel to hold on to that classic Genovese pesto.
It’s the BEST Italian comfort food. Learn how to make trofie pasta from scratch today with our easy step by step instructions and video guide.
Unique Ligurian Pesto
This Italian recipe is unique because of a secret ingredient added to the fresh basil pesto sauce - BUTTER. Yes, butter! During our explorations of the Liguria region, a little mom and pop restaurant explained the secret to a rich and delicious pesto is the addition of their hand churned butter. After lots of recipe testing, we nailed it and can’t wait to share it with you.
Perks of Homemade Pasta Noodles
There is something very therapeutic about making homemade tagliatelle, ravioli and trofie pasta by hand. The process of mixing, kneading, and rolling the dough allows you to be present in the moment, slow down and reconnect with family and friends. Not only is this recipe therapeutic, but its simplicity is delicious. Join us and learn how to make a classic Italian recipe your family will want on repeat.
Ingredients Trofie Pasta
- Flour – You can use all-purpose flour – but if you happen to have extra fine 00 flour or semolina flour – even better.
- Salt
- Cold water
Homemade Pesto Ingredients
- Fresh basil leaves
- Pine nuts – toast them first to make the sauce extra nutty and delicious.
- Garlic – but of course, right?
- Parmesan Cheese – the King of Cheese
- Butter – grass fed is best.
What is Trofie Pasta?
Trofie pasta, sometimes also called trofiette, originated from the Northern Ligurian region of Italy. It’s a short wheat based twisted pasta noodle with tapered ends. We think they kind of have the same shape as a skinny twirly Cheetos or a well defined German spaetzle noodle. Ok, that might be a stretch, but you get the idea.
Have you ever noticed that the shape, thickness, and ridges can affect how effectively pasta can hold on to any sauce? Take for example our saucy sausage pasta. The paprika tomato sauce just clings into every crevasse of the fusilli noodle.
The pressing and rolling movement of making the trofie noodles by hand creates these little curves. These little curves love holding on to sauce. Oh, my goodness trofie al pesto – it’s so good.
How to Make Trofie Pasta?
- Mix flour with salt in a bowl. Make a well in the middle of the flour and add the water. Slowly mix until the dough pulls together.
- Knead the dough on a floured surface until smooth.
- Form the dough into a ball and wrap it in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
- On a floured work surface, flatten the dough to about ¾ of an inch thick with your hands or a rolling pin.
- With a knife or a pastry cutter, cut dough into long vertical ½ inch slices.
- Use your hands to roll the dough into an approximately 12–16-inch length of rope. Repeat with the remaining slices of dough.
- Cut the dough ropes into small pieces. (approximately the size of the last joint of your index finger)
- Place one of the small dough pieces in the palm of your less dominate hand.
- Gently roll your dominant hand, with your fingers starting in the wrist area over the pasta and shape into a crescent trofie shaped pasta. (I usually run my hand over the dough piece twice to achieve a 2-inch pasta that is thin on the edges and a little thicker in the middle. (Check out our video in the recipe card to watch this in action.) Repeat with the remaining dough slices.
- Boil ¼ to ½ of the fresh trofie pasta at a time in well salted water. Depending how large you rolled your pasta it will take between 1-3 minutes to cook your pasta until a firm al dente. Your pasta will float up to the top and you will know that is nearly cooked.
- Remove and drain pasta from water and set aside. Repeat with a second batch of pasta.
How to Make Basil Pesto?
- Add fresh basil, toasted pine nuts, Parmesan cheese, garlic, melted butter and extra virgin olive oil into a food processor or high-speed blender and blend until smooth.
Putting it all Together: Trofie al Pesto
- Place a little dab of butter into a skillet and add the trofie pasta until warmed.
- Turn the heat off and toss with the homemade basil pesto.
- Top with extra Parmesan cheese and enjoy.
Recipe Tips
- Make sure you salt your pasta water well. As the noodles only cook for about 3 minutes or until al dente, it does not absorb much of the salt flavor.
The perfect ratio of pasta to water to salt is 5 quarts of water: 1 pound pasta: 2 tablespoons of sea salt.
- When your noodles float up to the top of the pot, it is a sign they are close to being cooked.
- Recruit help in hand rolling your pasta if you want to eat sooner. (Kids love helping. Adults are even more productive if you hand them a glass of wine to help with their creativity)
- Try your pasta with a sun-dried tomato pesto, spinach pesto or even a walnut pesto- super delicious.
- Reserve a little of the pasta water to adjust the consistency of the sauce.
- Sometimes this recipe is made with the addition of green beans and/ or sliced potatoes. Both are a delicious addition.
- You can also make your trofie pasta in advance and let it dry. However, you will need to increase your cooking time. Fresh is always best.
- Drizzle with a little extra virgin olive oil on the trofie al pesto – right before serving.
No Special Tools Needed
You can make this type of pasta at home without any special tools. All you need is flour, water, salt, and little Italian love. Trofie al pesto is a fun and interactive recipe that you can do with children as small as 2 years old or over 98 years young. Like our timpano pasta dome, rolling hand made pasta can be a little time consuming but so much fun. Having a few extra hands to help, makes teamwork – dreamwork!
You are going to want to recruit their help in hand rolling the pasta. It is not hard to do. If you have ever played with play dough, you have a head start on the whole process. Maybe your kids will do better than you!!!
Cinque de Terra
Our travels to Italy took us to the beautiful destination of Cinque Terre which is located on a rugged portion of coast on the Italian Riviera. It is in the Liguria region of Italy just to the west of the city of La Spezia. "The Five Lands" is composed of five villages: Monterosso al Mare,Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore.
The coastline, the five villages, and the surrounding hillsides are all part of the Cinque Terre National Park. Cinque Terre is stunning and is a must do if you happen to visit this region. During your visit, don’t miss out on your opportunity to try THE LIGURIAN specialty – Trofie al Pesto!
Vegan or Gluten Free Options?
For gluten free options, exchange wheat-based flour with a gluten free artisan blend flour. Many of these are cup to cup. For example, the Better Batter brand of artisan flour blend contains Rice flour, brown rice flour, tapioca starch, potato starch, potato flour and xanthan gum.
If you want to make your pasta vegan, just do not add parmesan cheese or butter. Instead, swap out EVOO or plant-based butter for regular butter. Add a few more pine nuts, salt and pepper or exchange with nutritional yeast to give it that flavor profile you desire. The flavor profile is changed but if you are lactose intolerant- you must do what you need to do.
How to Serve?
Prima (first course) – serve trofiette pasta as the “second appetizer” but not the main. You may consider following with our red snapper packets along withside salad with a lemon balsamic vinaigrette and a tiramisu cups for dessert. Don’t forget the limoncello or grappa at the end of the meal.
Side Dish – along with stuffed patty pan squash for a delicious vegetarian meal.Try pesto pasta on the side of our stuffed prosciutto chicken.
Vegetarian Main Dish – serve with roasted fennel and carrots and focaccia bread.
Frequent Asked Question
There are several different hacks to try to keep your basil pesto bright green in color.
1. Blanch the fresh basil leaves for 3 seconds and then plunge into an iced cold bath. Wring to remove water and proceed with pesto recipe.
2. Freeze the blades of the blender or food processor. This keeps the basil from getting warm and thus reduces the oxidation.
3. Avoid over processing the basil leaves. Only blend the pesto for short bursts to prevent the motor on the food processor from getting warm. We have better luck keeping our pesto bright green with our high-speed blender.
4. Add a layer of extra virgin olive oil on top of the fresh basil pesto to prevent the basil leaves from oxidizing.
5. Refrigerate the pesto promptly after blending if you are not going to use it right away.
More Pesto Recipes
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Trofie al Pesto
Equipment
- food processor or high powered blender
Ingredients
Trophie Pasta
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
or 00 Flour - 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup cold water
Homemade Basil Pesto
- 2 cups basil leaves
fresh - ¼ cup pine nuts
toasted - 2 cloves garlic
peeled - ½ cup Parmesan cheese
grated - ½ cup olive oil
- 4 tablespoons butter
melted (yes! butter in the Pesto that is the Ligurian way and their special secret for deliciousness) - Salt to taste
- ½ ladle Pasta water for thinning the sauce
- Extra butter for frying up and the finishing touches to the Ligurian Trofie al Pesto (We did not say this dish was low calorie but it is amazingly delicious)
- Parmesan cheese Garnishes (optional)
- basil fresh garnish - optional
Instructions
Homemade Trofie Pasta
- In a large bowl mix flour with the salt.
- Make well and add the water in the well and mix slowly with a fork.
- When the dough mixture is pulled together start mixing the dough with your hands until well incorporated. Check the dough for consistency as it should feel slightly tacky but your finger should come back clean when you push it in the dough. Add more flour if too wet and if too dry start to knead dough and see if the natural moisture from your hands will convert the dough and if not can add a little drop of water.
- Place a little dusting of flour on your wooden board and knead the dough for at least 8-10 minutes or until the dough is very smooth. Nice and easy kneading and turn your dough with each press. This is a very important step in the process to activate the glutens in the dough and give your pasta that very delicious texture.
- Form your dough into a ball or disk shape and dust flour on top and bottom of dough and wrap tightly with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for at least one hour or even overnight.
- Form the Trofie Pasta: Sprinkle your work surface and your plates that you will be placing your formed Trofie pasta on with flour. Pat or roll the dough to about ¾ inch thick.
- Cut dough into approximately ½ inch slices with a knife or pastry cutter. Roll the dough slices into a rope about ¼ inch in diameter with your hands. (Make sure that your cover the remaining dough back up with plastic wrap so it does not dry out.) Repeat this process with the remaining slices of pasta dough.
- Now cut the rope horizontally into little sections about ¼ inch in size or even smaller if you can. We made ours about the size of a pencil eraser or just slightly larger.
- Take one piece of cut dough into the palm of your hand and roll in one direction from bottom of palm up to the top of your fingers. Now you should have created this adorable little crescent pasta shape. Repeat this process until you have made enough Trofie pasta to feed enough for your family/friends. Place your completed little Trofie crescents shapes on the well floured plates.
Make Basil Pesto
- Place fresh basil, toasted pine nuts, garlic, parmesan cheese in blender or food processor and blend. Slowly add the oil in and continue to blend.
- Add the butter a little at a time to the food processor and keep blending until creamy and smooth. Taste and season with salt as required.
Cooking Trofie Pasta
- In a large pot bring at least 4 quarts of water to boil. Salt well as this gives flavor to the pasta.
- Once the water is at full boil, slowly add about ¼ -½ of the homemade pasta at a time to the water. Depending how large you rolled your pasta it will take between 1-3 minutes to cook your pasta until a firm aldente. Your pasta will float up to the top and you will know that is nearly cooked. Just simply test a pasta to confirm if al dente.
- Remove and drain pasta from water and set aside. Repeat with second batch of pasta. (I did it in separate batches as it is easier to manage this way and it does not drop the temperature of your water so much doing small batches at a time.)
Final Assembly
- In a large frying pan, place a large knob of butter and add your cooked Trofie pasta. Next add about ½ to ¾ of your delicious Ligurian Pesto, ½ ladle of your pasta water and delicately stir until well incorporated.
- Place your delicious Trofie al Pesto in bowls and garnish with a grating of fresh Parmesan Reggiano and a sprig of fresh basil. Drizzle with a little EVOO oil and Enjoy!
Video
Notes
- Make sure you salt your pasta water well.
- When you noodles float up to the top of the pot, it is a sign they are close to being cooked.
- Recruit help in hand rolling your trofie pasta if you want to eat sooner. (Kids love helping out, adults are even more productive if you hand them a glass of wine to help with their creativity)
- Try your trofie al pesto with a roasted red pepper pesto, spinach pesto or even a walnut pesto- super delicious.
- Thin the Basil pesto sauce with a little reserved pasta water.
- Sometimes this recipe is made with the addition of green beans and/ or sliced potatoes. Both are an a delicious addition.
- You can also make your trofie pasta in advance and let it dry. However, you will need to increase your cooking time. Fresh is always best.
- Blanch the fresh basil leaves for 3 seconds and then plunge into an iced cold bath. Wring to remove water and proceed with pesto recipe.
- Freeze the blades of the blender or food processor. This keeps the basil from getting warm and thus reduces the oxidation.
- Lastly, avoid over processing the basil leaves. Only blend the pesto for short bursts to prevent the motor on the food processor from getting warm. We have better luck keeping our pesto bright green with our high-speed blender.
- Add a layer of extra virgin olive oil on top of the fresh basil pesto to prevent the basil leaves from oxidizing.
- Refrigerate the pesto promptly after blending if you are not going to use it right away.
erika says
Great guest post! I've been wanting to make homemade pasta, but am always intimidated by the rolling/stuffing/pressing steps. Those little trofie pasta shapes don't look too hard though...and super delicious with that gorgeous green pesto!
Healthy World Cuisine says
Hello Erika, this is a great recipe for pasta beginners. Measurements do not have to be exact. No rolling out the dough. Give it a try and let me know how it goes. Take care, BAM
lambyknits01 says
Gorgeous photos, BAM! I'm so jealous of your trip 🙂
Healthy World Cuisine says
Thank you and yes you have ever reason to be jealous of this trip as it is just a beautiful place. I can't wait to go back one day. Take care, BAM
Kristy says
I agree Bam, the world has become a smaller place which was one of my intentions when we started blogging. I want my kids to know there is far more to the world than our little suburb. :)This pasta looks delicious - absolute perfection. I'm such a pasta junkie too, so I know we'll be making this!
Healthy World Cuisine says
Your a great mom Kristy! The world is a very international place but sometimes suburbia is not. I am glad to hear that you are opening your children's horizons and educating them about the world as it will be easier for them when they flee the nest. This pasta is so fun to make with your kids and my teenagers said it felt like playing with playdough- a fun thing to do. The pasta shapes do not need to be perfect. A great weekend fun activity for the family. Take care, BAM
ChopinandMysaucepan says
Dear BAM,
Not withstanding how beautiful and delicious your pasta dish looks, I love the photos of what I would presume to be the Italian coastline.
Healthy World Cuisine says
The pasta is really a great flavor and unique texture that is really addicting. The pasta tastes even better if you have a view of the the Cinque Terre coastline from your restaurant window. I hope you can visit this destination one day. Take care, BAM
Profiteroles & Ponytails says
Bam I read this post when it first came out and just realize now that I didn't comment. Your post brough back very fond memories of my honeymoon and brief visit to the Cinque Terre. It is my all time favourite little spot on earth. I brought back several bottles of the ligurian pesto as well! I simply must try this trofie pasta one day when I can enjoy the process of making it and eating it with a beautiful bottle of Italian wine!
Healthy World Cuisine says
How romantic for a honey moon destination! Maybe you can go back and celebrate one of your anniversaries in this very special location. I should have purchased some ligurian pesto while I was there but was traveling light but now I know how to make it from scratch so I am good to go. Take care, BAM
The Busy Beet says
I'm so happy to have found your blog! Not only does everything look delicious, but I will be studying abroad in Florence next spring and this Italian food/photography is making me so excited! Can't wait to try this Trofie! 🙂
Healthy World Cuisine says
Thanks so much for stopping by. Wow what a fantastic experience to study in Florence! I am so jealous....You are going to have so many unique opportunities. Looking forward to keeping in touch. Take care, BAM
rsmacaalay says
Thats a really nice place, I love to visit that. And that pesto dish, look so yummy
Healthy World Cuisine says
Liguria is a very special place with beautiful people. Cinque Terre is a must see if in the area, but the food in the mom and pop restaurants(my incentive for the pesto dish) is what really puts this place on the map. Take Care, BAM
Sammie says
Hi Bam!! That's a great guest post!! I love fresh pasta best and the pesto just looks so amazing!!! I agree with you! The world is getting smaller each day! It's just so great and exciting to be able to gain these international experience! 🙂
Healthy World Cuisine says
Thanks Sammie. It is because of all of you, that this world is a much smaller place. xie xie ni! BAM
Promenade Claire says
I've heard that the area is stunning, my partner has travelled around there and waxes lyrical about it - he travelled by train for a lot of it.
and your pasta is totally delicious, I can see why you would want to recreate it at home !
Healthy World Cuisine says
The only 2 ways you can really get around in cinque terre area is by train or walking as cars are not allowed. Maybe next time you can revisit this place with your partner. I promise you will not be disappointed. Take care, BAM
Norma Chang says
I have not made homemade pasta for a long while but this dish makes me want to get to work. Love the green color in the finished dish.
Healthy World Cuisine says
Thank you Norma. My family is begging me to make it again soon.
susartandfood says
Bam, your photos and recipes are always so colorful. Looks fabulous.
Healthy World Cuisine says
Thank you very much. I only have a point and shoot cannon camera and most days I am very happy it does the focusing for me especially when both of your hands are full of pasta dough. Take Care, BAM
dianeskitchentable says
That pasta is gorgeous as well as the photos from Cinque Terre. After visiting, my daughter's dream wedding would be a destination wedding there. I think it was one of her favorite places in all of Italy. When we flew over to visit her, we just couldn't squeeze that trip in for ourselves so I wouldn't mind throwing a wedding party there. I understand the entire village(s) just join in the festivities.
Healthy World Cuisine says
What a romantic idea! A wedding party off the coast of Liguria.... Crashing waves, blue skies, romantic little love locks (this hiking place was closed when we were there due to land slides) however it is a place where people go to share their love and tie the knot so to speak. Take care, BAM
Asmita (@FoodieAsmita) says
Hi Bam,
What a gorgeous dish! I have never attempted to make pasta at home but sure am motivated to do so after reading this post! Checking out the guest post right away!
Healthy World Cuisine says
Thanks Asmita. I hope you give this pasta dish a try. If you don't eat parmesan cheese, you can just alter your pesto and add a little extra salt and lemon zest to give it a little kick. Take Care, BAM
createeng says
Both posts are a joy to read. 🙂
Healthy World Cuisine says
I am so glad that you enjoyed the read and that I could introduce you to a new fellow blogger. Take care, BAM
janinka1 says
Eveything is so beautiful, Bam! as usually 🙂 Take care! Janina
Healthy World Cuisine says
Thank you Janina for your kind comment. Wishing you a bright and happy week. Take Care, BAM