Take a look at this photo of a plate of ‘Lasagne al Pesto’.

I think we can agree that it looks delicious.

I suspect that as each sheet of just cooked and drained egg lasagne was placed randomly ‘on purpose’ onto the white plate with the thin dark blue decorative line running round its circumference, the chef has coated it before placing yet another sheet on top and repeating the process.

Now look at the quality of the pesto itself. It’s a very light green emulsion containing many specs of a darker green. What is missing from the photo is also important; the bottom of the plate is clean, without a coating of oil that has drained from the pesto itself.

The texture and consistency of the pesto therefore probably explains why the pasta sheets are so well coated. The plate has after all been prepared in the restaurant kitchen and carried by the waiter to our table, enough time you’d think for the sauce to partly separate from the pasta. It hasn’t. And no julienne slithers of cheese floating in the pesto sauce; no evidence of too much surface oil either.

The light green colour, lighter than fresh basil itself, comes from having fully integrated the white coloured cheese and pine nuts with the basil. The oils in all three ingredients help this process of emulsification to the point that a ‘paste’ of sort is created - traditionally it is only after this ‘paste’ is created that oil is added to dilute the mixture to taste or tradition.

The darker green specs are of course fragments of basil leaf. They supply a surprisingly distinct and complimentary experience to that of consuming the silky textured sauce coated egg lasagne. No whole pine nuts were sprinkled over the prepared dish, but the ingredients are so well integrated that they could have only detracted from the extremely satisfying whole.

So where were we? At Rapallo Golf Club, in the pretty seaside resort of the same name along the Ligurian coast. Can’t think of many local British Golf Clubs where you’d go to for food of this standard, served on a veranda over-looking the 18th hole. And certainly not for a mere €9 euro
a serving.

Definitely one of our absolute musts.

Ps. You can eat in the Club restaurant without either playing the course or being a member. We go just for the food. Equally fine is the service. Courteous, stylish and expert.