Bavette (pasta) with arugola pesto sauce

Arugula - Eruca sativa - or rocket is an herb fresh spicy taste that depopulated in the dishes of Italian restaurants and pizzerias since the fateful Eighties. This is so as to be inflated, and frankly, when the waiter shows me the dish chosen concluding with the famous words "on a bed of arugula," I take a sort of cold shiver and I feel my taste in solidarity with my neurons irritated.

The rocket, in truth, it tastes good and is very agreeable in salads or enjoyed some of the natural deep in a simple vinaigrette or, as I have been able to do thanks to my friend Matthew Grunewald, in an exquisite Japanese sesame sauce. But it is also great cooked, boiled and sauté with garlic, oil and chilli or reduced in pesto order to flavor a good plate of pasta.

And then, when my dear friend Angela, called me saying "I've got some fresh arugula from the garden of my brother and I have you prepared a bag. Do you want it? "My neurons were excited rather than nervous and they made me respond in the only way permitted" Of course, I want it". And it was so much that I and my friends could taste in all possible ways.

And now the recipe for pesto, simple, quick and tasty .

Ingredients: (for 4 people): 400 g. fresh arugula; 1 clove of garlic; 25 g . butter; 25 ml. of extra virgin olive oil; 30 g . of shelled almonds, 2 tablespoons of grated Grana Padano cheese; salt and pepper to taste; 500 gr. of bibs (or other format of your liking ).

Procedure: After having washed arugula, boil it in boiling water , adding salt after about 2 minutes from the resumption of the boil. When cooked, drain and place in a blender with all other ingredients and reduce it to a very smooth pesto . If it should appear too thick , add a few tablespoons of water in which it was cooked vegetables.

Cook the pasta and season the sauce with arugula.

Tips : Serve this main dish with a fruity white wine, not too soft and not very structured that will enhance the delicacy of the pesto remain in the mouth , leaving a pleasant feeling of freshness.

Note: Needless to say that also has aphrodisiac properties ... but for this I refer to the attached link. Sorry, it is in Italian, but you can use Google translator ;)

Arugula, lusty grass