Whole-Wheat trofie with pesto step by step

Whole-Wheat Trofie with pesto

In weekend I love cooking with my daughter. Cooking with kids is also a great way to give them a lot of information about food, diet and healthy eating. This saturday we cooked together trofie (or trofiette). Trofie is a typical regional pasta of the Liguria (Liguria is Italy’s northwestern coastal region). Trofie are twisted to look like spirals with thinner ends compared to the center. The dough for this pasta is made with flour, water and salt, I used the whole-wheat flour because is better than flour 00. As tradition requires, the Trofie are usually seasoned with delicious pesto sauce made with Genovese basil, pine nuts and Parmesan cheese. Obviously are suitable for many other recipes.

Ingredients: (Servers: 3)

• 2 cups of whole-wheat flour
• 1/3 cups of water (the amount of water used depends on the type of your flour, so you might have to add a little more or less to get the consistency of the dough right)
• 1 teaspoon of salt

Place the flour and salt in a bowl and add the water. Using the tips of your fingers, mix the water with the flour, incorporating a little at a time, until everything is combined. You can also make your dough in a food processor if you’ve got one. Once the dough is a cohesive mass, continue to knead for another 15 minutes, remembering to dust your board with flour when necessary. At the end the dough should be elastic, smooth and silky.

Dough

Then wrap the dough in cling film and put it into the fridge to rest for at least 20 minutes before you use it. Then you have to roll small pieces of dough. Dust your work surface with the flour, and take a lump of dough the size of a chestnut and start kneading the dough with both hands, primarily using the palms of your hands.
You have to obtain strings of dough until the width of the rod is about 1/2-inch  just like these:

Strings of Dough

Then you have to cut each string into small bits and shape each with your fingertips in a single rolling movement. Dust with flour to avoid trofie sticking one another.

Cook the pasta in boiling salted water, simmer for 3 minutes for an authentic ‘al dente’ texture.
Drain and serve with pesto sauce or with your favourite sauce.