The world discovered the existence of trenette, the traditional Ligurian noodle, thanks to Pixar’s Luca and his voracious appetite for them. But for every person familiar with the Italian Riviera and its cuisine, they are far from being a surprise: served with homemade pesto, potatoes and string beans, they are as good as pasta gets and, if you ask me, even better than fancier – and perhaps better known – trofie.

Trenette have always been a staple in my Piedmontese family, because the cook of the house, my maternal grandmother, had relatives in Genoa and knew a thing or two about the food of Liguria. Her torta pasqualina was unashamedly genoese and so was her thick, creamy minestrone, which she liked to enrich with a bit of pesto. Trenette, in my house, were common, even when pesto wasn’t available: she would make them with plain tomato sauce and, of course, potatoes, rigorously boiled with the pasta.