First, trendy restaurants served pesto — usually with pasta. Then, fashionable cookbooks told us how to make it. Soon, the chain restaurants started saucing everything with pesto — mashed potatoes, grilled chicken and pizza. Next, chef geniuses put their food processors in gear to create variations like cilantro pesto, spinach pesto and sundried tomato pesto. Within a few years, many grocery stores began carrying pesto in plastic tubs.

        But by the mid to late '90s, the American pesto wave dropped to a dribble.

        “I just think we got tired of it,” says Carol Tabone, director of the Cooking School at Jungle Jim's Market in Fairfield.

        For her, that admission requires fortitude. Although she didn't taste pesto until later, Carol Serino Tabone grew up eating authentic dishes prepared by her Italian-born grandmothers and mother. But she knows pesto isn't going to fade away. Like ripe tomatoes and fruity olive oil, pesto is deeply rooted in the Italian kitchen.

        The ancient Romans were the first to make pesto, by pounding (pesto means “pounded”) parsley with garlic and other ingredients into a paste. Later, basil was thrown into the lineup, and pesto became a classic condiment of the port Genoa, in northwest Italy.

        Today in Italy or America, pesto is the sauce that smells and tastes of summer: green clovey basil, accented with garlic and olive oil, tempered by rich, ground nuts and cheese.

        Ms. Tabone likes to sauce chicken and fish with pesto, and to top little toasts with it for crostini appetizers. Her new pesto favorite is a simple one-pot meal made with pasta, green beans and new potatoes. Also native to Genoa, the dish is called Trenette col Pesto, after the flat, fresh pasta named trenette.

        “It is an unusual combination,” Ms. Tabone says. “But it has a wonderful balance of flavors and textures.”

        Who knows, if the peasanty dish catches on here in the States, pesto could become trendy all over again.

        For her version of this Genoese dish, Ms. Tabone uses dried fettuccine instead of trenette. But she suggests also using short, tubular pasta such as penne rigate. If you don't have pine nuts, substitute an equal amount of chopped walnuts (but always toast them, she says). It's fine to use all Parmesan if you prefer, and if you want to make a classic pesto, just leave out the balsamic vinegar.

       Fettuccine with Green Beans, Potatoes and Balsamic Pesto
       
       2 cups packed fresh basil leaves
        1/4 cup toasted pine nuts
       2 crushed garlic cloves
       1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
       Black pepper, to taste
        1/3 to 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
       2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
        1/4 cup grated Pecorino Romano
        1/4 cup grated Parmesan
        3/4 pound green beans, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
       4 medium new potatoes, about 3/4 pound, unpeeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
       1 pound dry fettuccine
       Salt and black pepper, to taste
       Extra grated Parmesan
       2 tablespoons butter (optional)

        To make pesto, place basil, pine nuts, garlic, salt and pepper in food processor. With machine running, gradually add oil scraping down the sides as necessary. Process until smooth. Add vinegar and process until smooth. (Pesto may be prepared to this point up to two days before eating, covered and refrigerated.) Before using, stir in grated cheese.

        To finish dish, bring medium pot of water to boil. Add salt and green beans and cook until crisp tender. Using skimmer or slotted spoon, remove green beans and transfer to bowl of cold water or run cold water over beans to stop cooking. Add potatoes to boiling water and cook until tender. Drain and place in bowl of drained beans.

        Bring a large pot of water to boil. Add salt and fettuccine and cook, stirring often, until al dente. During last minute or so of cooking, add beans and potatoes to heat through. Drain pasta, reserving 1 cup of cooking water.

        Return pasta and vegetables to warm pot. Add butter and toss. Add pesto and toss gently, adding enough of reserved cooking water to make a creamy sauce. Season with salt and pepper. Serve with sprinkled grated Parmesan. Makes 4 to 6 servings.

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