Nigella Lawson's Favorite Pastas #1: With Potatoes, Green Beans and Pesto

British food goddess Nigella Lawson calls this one of her two favorite pasta recipes. Nigella says that although "I have indicated that the serving is for one or two ... I find it all too easy to polish off on my own."

Pasta With Potatoes, Green Beans and Pesto
Time: 35 minutes

Salt
2 cups (8 ounces) potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch dice
8 ounces dried linguine
1 cup (2 ounces) green beans, trimmed and cut into short lengths
1 1/2 cups fresh basil leaves
1 clove garlic, minced
2/3 cup grated pecorino cheese
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil.

1. Fill a large pot with lightly salted water. Add potatoes, place over high heat, and bring to a boil. Cook potatoes until tender, about 20 minutes. Add linguine to pot and, a few minutes later, the beans. Cook pasta to taste.

2. While pasta cooks, prepare pesto: In a food processor, combine basil, garlic and cheese. Process until mixture is finely chopped. With motor running, pour oil down feed tube to make a coarse purée. (If you are pressed for time or ingredients -- or lazy -- you'll still achieve good results by substituting a jar of pesto sauce.)

3. Remove about a cup of cooking water from pasta pot, then drain pasta, potatoes and beans. With food processor running, add 1/4 cup cooking water to pesto. Dry pasta pan, and return potatoes, beans and pasta to it. Add pesto to ingredients in pan. If desired, add enough reserved cooking water to thin sauce so that it coats strands of pasta as it is tossed with a fork. Serve immediately.

Yield: 2 servings.