Where does Pesto come from?
Pesto comes from Genoa, the port city of Liguria in north-western Italy. Its green basil sauce was first written down in the mid-1800s, and the traditional way to make it is still by hand, pounded in a marble mortar.
Pounded, not blended
The name is the past participle of the Genoese verb pestâ, 'to pound' or 'to crush', and the same Latin root gave English the word pestle. The traditional method uses a marble mortar and a wooden pestle. Garlic and pine nuts are crushed first, then the basil leaves are ground with coarse salt in a circular motion until they make a cream. Only then do the grated cheeses go in, a mix of Parmesan and sheep's-milk pecorino, and last of all a thin stream of olive oil.
Basil arrives in the 1800s
Pounded sauces are old. An ancient Latin poem describes moretum, a paste of garlic, salt, cheese, herbs, oil and vinegar, and in the Middle Ages Genoa's kitchens made agliata, a mash of garlic and walnuts. Basil, though, is first documented only from the 1850s. Emanuele Rossi's Genoese cookbook of 1852 has the earliest written recipe, and Giovanni Battista Ratto's of 1863 crushed garlic, basil, cheese and pine nuts with a little butter, then thinned the paste with oil to dress lasagne and trofie.
Genoa's own basil
Growing basil became a speciality of Genoa's market gardens in the 19th century, in the Bisagno valley and on the hills of Pra', and it soon spread along the Ligurian coast. Greenhouses later made fresh basil available all year, which helped pesto become an everyday dish. Since 2005 Basilico Genovese has been a protected product of origin, prized for its complete lack of any minty note. Pesto became popular in North America in the 1980s and 1990s.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org ↗ · it.wikipedia.org › Pesto alla genovese ↗ · basilicogenovese.it ↗ · pestochampionship.it ↗ · it.wikipedia.org › Basilico Genovese ↗
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