Artist’s Palate: Georgie Hopton and Gary Hume’s Pasta Liguria

Pasta Liguria may hail from the Italian Riviera, but for Georgie Hopton and Gary Hume, the dish is deeply entwined with upstate New York, where they own a 40-acre farmstead. ‘Apart from the fact that this dish is utterly delicious and profoundly comforting, we get stupidly excited at the prospect of using our early potatoes, the ever giving beans and lots of aromatic basil from our vegetable garden,’ Hopton explains. The result is a dreamy medley of green and blue, reminding the artists of Picasso and Matisse, and the frescoes of Pompeii. The couple recommend serving the pasta ‘in hot bowls in front of a good film, with a glass of something that shines in the light like wet grass’. 

Pasta Liguria recipe

Ingredients

175g trofie pasta (or broken spaghetti)
75g blue potatoes, skins on, sliced 4mm thick
75g green beans, cut in half if using fine, in thirds if thick
50g basil leaves
1 large clove garlic, peeled and chopped
1 tbs pine nuts
6 tbs fabulous olive oil
25g grated pecorino cheese
salt and pepper

Suggested vegetable varieties

Blue potatoes - Adirondack Blue
Green beans - Fin de Bagnol 
Green basil - Genovese 

Method

Boil the pasta and potatoes together in a large pot of salted water, adding the green beans after 7 minutes. Meanwhile, make your pesto: put the basil leaves, garlic, pine nuts and olive oil in a food mixer, season with salt and pepper, and whizz until smooth, then stir in the cheese. Reserve a cup of the pasta water before draining. Add half of this (or more, if desired) to the drained pasta and vegetables with the pesto. Serve in hot bowls in front of a good film, with a glass of something that shines in the light, like wet grass. §