Ingredients for 4 persons (for linguine, lasagne, gnocchi, minestrone, etc.):

2 big handfuls of basil leaves

2 garlic cloves (or less if you want, when it is not liked very much)

1 or 2 heaping full soup spoons of pine nuts

40 g of ricotta

30 g of parmesan and 30 g of pecorino or romano (both grated)

sufficient olive oil

1 small piece of butter

salt

Wash and dry the basil leaves, put them in a mortar with the garlic and the pine nuts and pound (pesta) every thing. Add the ricotta, the grated cheese, and keep pounding it until you obtain a well amalgamated compost. Add the small piece of butter and little by little the required amount of oil. The sauce has to be soft and dense.

Before you pour the sauce on the linguine, lasagne, or gnocchi, add the salt and dilute it with 2 or 3 soup spoons full of the water in which the pasta was boiling.

The food processor should only be used in the case of an emergency. This is not the traditional recipe, but it comes from an old Genovese family which is passing it from generation to generation. In America instead of the two different grated cheeses, you can use 60 g of Argentine parmesan.