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Liguria. It’s a charming village with quaint trompe l’oeil paintings of windowsills and architectural features on its buildings.



SILKY ESCAROLE–PINE NUT PAPPARDELLE
    { Pappardelle con crema di scarola }
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    SERVES 4 to 6 | REGION: Campania
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This sauce is actually a vegetable puree—healthy and perfect for vegans. Escarole, with its broad, tender, pale-green leaves, makes a gorgeous sauce that gets an added flavor boost from olives, salty capers, tingly chile peppers, and crunchy toasted nuts. Nothing is more simple and elegant.
Here, the sauce is tossed with pappardelle, which are fabulous long, wide noodles whose name comes from the Italian word pappare —to gobble up—but it is fabulous with any pasta.
½ head escarole, about 8 ounces (225 g)
Salt
Olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
12 pitted oil-cured black Gaeta olives, halved
2 tablespoons salted capers, rinsed
1 small fresh red chile pepper, thinly sliced
1 pound (455 g) pappardelle or any pasta, preferably Garofalo brand
¼ cup (35 g) toasted pine nuts
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Wash and roughly chop the escarole and boil it until it is bright green, about 2 minutes. Remove it with a slotted spoon to a food processor, reserving the cooking water.
Puree the warm escarole with 3 tablespoons oil and the garlic until very smooth and silky. Stir in the olives, capers, and chile to taste.
Meanwhile, bring the cooking water back to a boil, add the pappardelle, and boil until it is al dente. Drain and toss with the escarole mixture. Serve topped with the pine nuts.

PASTA WITH POOR MAN’S PESTO
    { Pasta al pesto povero }
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    SERVES 4 | REGION: Sicily
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Highly aromatic, with wave after wave of flavor—the basil hits first, then the rosemary, with a delightful finish of mint and lemon. Popular in the countryside of Sicily’s Agrigento province, this is called “poor man’s” because it is made mostly with herbs and vegetables, plentiful in every peasant’s garden. To make enough delicious pesto for four takes just six almonds!
1 ¼ cups (55 g) assorted fresh herb leaves, including basil, parsley, mint, and a bit of sage and rosemary
1 small tomato, diced
1 garlic clove
6 toasted almonds
Zest of ½ lemon
Olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 pound (455 g) cavatappi or any pasta
Pecorino or caciocavallo cheese
In a food processor or mortar and pestle, grind the herbs, tomato, garlic, almonds, and zest until smooth. While processing slowly stream in 5 tablespoons oil until creamy. It will be very dense. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Boil the pasta in salted water until it is al dente. Drain and toss with the pesto, adding a few tablespoons of the cooking water if the mixture is dry. Top with a drizzle of oil and shaved or grated cheese to taste.

REGINETTE WITH WALNUT-ALMOND PUMPKIN PESTO
    { Reginette al pesto di zucca e noci }
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    SERVES 4 | REGION: Central and southern Italy
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This simple orange-colored pesto with two different nuts is so full of flavor that you don’t even need grated cheese—perfect for vegans.
My very favorite squash for this recipe is kabocha, aka Japanese pumpkin, which is naturally sweet, with a pretty flesh color and nice texture. It’s the closest in flavor to the terrific zucca rosso pumpkins of Italy.
1 small kabocha, butternut squash, or sweet pumpkin, about 1 ½ pounds (680 g)
Olive oil
⅓ cup (40 g) chopped toasted walnuts
½ cup (55 g) chopped toasted almonds
1 pound (455 g) reginette or any pasta
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Aged balsamic vinegar or balsamic glaze
Preheat the oven to 400°F (205°C) and lightly oil a baking pan.
Cut the kabocha in half and discard the seeds. Put it onto the baking pan and bake until tender and golden at the edges, about 45 minutes, turning once during cooking.
Meanwhile, in a small food processor or mortar and pestle, finely grind the walnuts and almonds. Scoop out about 1 ½ cups (360 ml) of the pumpkin flesh and puree it with the