Pesto

Pesto () is a sauce that traditionally consists of crushed garlic, European pine nuts, coarse salt, basil leaves, and hard cheese such as Parmigiano-Reggiano (also known as Parmesan cheese) or Pecorino Sardo (cheese made from sheep's milk), all blended with olive oil. It originated in Genoa, the capital city of Liguria, Italy.

Etymology

''Pesto alla Genovese'' (in English: ''Genoese Pesto''); () refers to the original dish.

The name pesto is the past participle of the Genoese verb (Italian: ), which means "to pound," "to crush," in reference to the original method of preparation. According to tradition, the ingredients are "crushed" or ground in a marble mortar through a circular motion of a wooden pestle. This same Latin root, through Old French, also gave rise to the English noun ''pestle''. Incidentally, the Latin root seems to be similar to the Sanskrit adjective ''pishta'' ( sa, पिष्ट, ), which means to "ground," "pounded," "crushed."
Strictly speaking, ''pesto'' is a generic term for anything made by pounding; that is why the word is used for several pestos in Italy. Nonetheless, ''pesto alla genovese'' ("Genoese pesto") remains the most popular pesto in Italy and the rest of the world.

History

Pesto is thought to have had two predecessors in ancient times, going back as far as the Roman age. The ancient Romans used to eat a similar paste called moretum, which was made by crushing garlic, salt, cheese, herbs, olive oil, and vinegar (and sometimes pine nuts) together. The use of this paste in the Roman cuisine is mentioned in the ''Appendix Vergiliana'', an ancient collection of poems in which the author details the preparation of ''moretum''. During the Middle Ages, a popular sauce in the Genoan cuisine was ''agliata'', which was a mash of garlic and walnuts, as garlic was a staple in the nutrition of Ligurians, especially for the seafarers.

The introduction of basil, the main ingredient of modern pesto, occurred in more recent times and is first documented only in the mid-19th century when gastronomist Giovanni Battista Ratto published his book ''La Cuciniera Genovese'' in 1863:

"Take a clove of garlic, basil or, when that is lacking, marjoram and parsley, grated Dutch and Parmigiano cheese and mix them with pine nuts and crush it all together in a mortar with a little butter until reduced to a paste. Then dissolve it with good and abundant oil. Lasagne and Trofie are dressed with this mash, made more liquid by adding a little hot water without salt."

Although likely originating from and being domesticated in India, basil took the firmest root in the regions of Liguria, Italy, and Provence, France. It was abundant in this part of Italy, though only when in season, which is why marjoram and parsley are suggested as alternatives when basil is lacking. Ratto mentions Dutch cheese (''formaggio olandese'') instead of Pecorino Sardo since Northern European cheeses were common in Genoa at the time, thanks to the centuries-long commercial trades of the maritime republic.

This recipe for ''pesto alla genovese'' was often revised in the following years (a noted revision by Emanuele Rossi occurred in 1865, only a couple of years after Ratto's ''Cuciniera''), and it shortly became a staple in the Ligurian culinary tradition, with each family often featuring its own pesto recipe (with slight differences to the traditional ingredients). This is the main reason why pesto recipes often differ from each other.

Pesto recipes began circulating in American newspapers as early as the late 1920s, per a syndicated recipe by George Rector