Trenette al pesto

Eastside Road, Healdsburg, August 2, 2009—

THEY WERE A NEW kind of pasta to me: trenette, short batons, say two inches long, of a hollow thick-shelled triangular cross-section no more than a quarter inch on a side. Rustichella brand, a brand I trust. Organic. They looked to me as if they'd hold pesto nicely, and they reminded me a bit of strozzapreti, another thick short pasta that I particularly like, so I brought them home.
Today's pesto was particularly nice: two bunches of Genovese basil from the Kiff farm, a couple of cloves of that strong flavorful French rose-violet garlic that Yael Bernier sells, also at the Healdsburg farmer's market; pine nuts not from China but from New Mexico — piñons, in fact. The Parmesan we bought last fall in Milan, getting better and nuttier as time goes by. Good Turkish olive oil from Portland. So much travel, so many friends and acquaintances, all ground up together in the marble mortar.
Sliced tomatoes; radishes; nuts. A "petit Marcel" from Pugs Leap. That was lunch, with friends, on the patio; tonight we finished it all off for supper, with a green salad from the garden.

Rosé, Var, "La Ferme Julien"; cheap Pinot grigio.