PUPILS FROM 2A CLASS - FELTRE SCHOOL SOWN WITH BASIL THE SOIL WITH THE HELP OF ONE OF THEIR GRANDPA.

AS SOON AS THE LITTLE PLANTS CAME UP, THEY TRANSPLANTED THEM INTO LITTLE POTS.

AFTER A WHILE THEY HAD A GOOD HARVEST!

THEN, CHILDREN FROM THE 2ND CLASS (FELTRE) AND 3RD CLASS (PINI) MET TO PREPARE A TYPICAL ITALIAN RECIPE: PESTO.

WHAT IS PESTO?IT’S A TRADITIONAL SAUCE COMING FROM LIGURIA, AN ITALIAN REGION.

SOME HISTORICAL NOTESPESTO has very ancient origins:, we have had the first documents since Roman times, by Virgilio and Plinio, even if the traditional recipe we know nowadays goes back to the seventeenth century.

There are also lots of legends: the nicer talks about a monastery up to the hills surrounding Genoa: this monastery was dedicated to Saint Basilio. A poor friar was living there and he had nothing to eat but anchovies. He was really fed up of this so, one day he went out and picked this aromatic plant up: it was growing spontaneously and he called it ‘BASILIUM’ in Saint Basilio’s honour. He went back, put the leaves into a mortar together with some other few ingredients and started to pound them all until he got a sort of cream. It was the first ‘pesto’ and, as time goes by, it became famous all over the world.

INGREDIENTS

250 GR. BASIL

20 GR. PINE-KERNELS

A CLOVE OF GARLIC

HALF GLASS OF OLIVE OIL

SALT

THE MORTAR

2 SPOONS OF GRATED “PECORINO CHEESE”

FIRST STEP: PICK THE LEAVES FROM THE PLANT

SECOND STEP: POUND THE INGREDIENTS INTO THE MORTAR

THIRD STEP: ADD A LITTLE BIT OF OIL

AND… IT’S READY!

WHAT SHALL WE DO NOW? JUST POUR THE SAUCE ONTO THE PASTA AND….