Pesto sauce is the world's second most popular pasta sauce, but its success, which has grown over the past 20 years, is due to its versatility. Pesto is ancient. It probably originated as a condiment of minced garlic used in the Roman Empire to season meats and fish, to which some basil leaves were added for flavor. Over the years it has evolved with the appearance of pasta and has been enriched with other ingredients such as Parmigiano or Pecorino cheese and pine nuts.
The first written recipe for pesto genovese appears in the 1863 book Cuciniera Genovese (Genoese Cooking) by G. B. Ratto. Today, pesto Genovese is the condiment that best represents Genovese and Ligurian cuisine, and this is why the most famous pesto in Genoa, produced by the Rossi family since 1947, is distributed throughout Italy and in over 15 countries worldwide, sold to restaurants, pizzerias, delicatessens and stores of all sizes, all united in their search for quality.
The Pesto Championship
Every two years, 100 competitors from all over the world challenge each other at the World Championship for Genoese Pesto Made with a Mortar. They prepare pesto Genovese the traditional way, and the competition is open to everyone: professionals and amateurs who simply love to cook.
How to make the ideal pesto
“You need good basil, better if it’s Genovese DOP. There’s no other way," says Roberto Panizza, King of Pesto, an advocate for the sauce on a global level and the creator of the Pesto championship. "If you use the wrong basil, you’re done for, even if you’ve grown it in your garden. When the pesto oxidizes and becomes black quickly it’s the basil’s fault. It was either grown in direct sun, or it was harvested too late or is too old. Wash the leaves and then dry them. You have to pound it in the mortar, if you caress it the pesto won’t happen.
"And don’t work too much basil at one time, it’s better to divide it into two or three batches. A trick I learned is to remove the pine nuts and garlic immediately after having crushed them – which is the first thing you do – so that the basil is worked in the empty mortar, with only a few grains of coarse salt, on the sides of the mortar. Here, too, we have to avoid cushioning the work of the pestle, making our work less effective and making the basil suffer. Then we reintroduce the cream of garlic and pine nuts into the mortar once the basil begins to release its liquid.”
And what if you use a blender? “You can use any trick you like (cooling it, pulsing it), and you can get a very good pesto, possibly even sublime. But it will never taste like mortar pesto. We all need to come to terms with this.”
How to use it
Pesto is traditionally served with trofie or trenette pasta or potato gnocchi, but you can serve it with whatever type of pasta you prefer, long or short. Just remember that the pasta should be rather thick enough to stand up to the aromatic nature of the pesto. In season (spring) it’s possible (but not mandatory) to cook the pasta with chopped green beans and potatoes.
Don't place the pesto sauce over direct heat or sauté it in a pan like you would with other sauces. Just use it as it is in the jar. Pesto Genovese is a cold sauce and when mixing it with pasta, it's best to dissolve it in a bowl with a tablespoon or two of the pasta cooking water.
Don't overcook the pasta – add the pasta to the sauce, not the other way around.
Not just on pasta
Pesto isn't just limited to pasta. It’s also splendid when served as a sauce on steamed or boiled white fish, boiled potatoes, grilled chicken breast, and naturally in soups (fresh vegetable soups). It’s delicious in a vegetable or tomato salad or on a Caprese salad or a mozzarella panino. It’s also fantastic on pizza.
The recipe? Trenette with pesto
Ingredients
For the pesto:
2 cloves of garlic
a large handful of basil
Pecorino Sarde, grated
Parmigiano, gratede
extra-virgin olive oil
salt
For the pasta
12 oz. trenette
2 oz. green beans
2 diced potatoes.
Method:
Chop the garlic and place it in a marble mortar with a little coarse salt. Wash and squeeze the basil, then take the leaves without the stem and put them one by one in the mortar, pounding with a wooden pestle while adding the garlic, four spoonfuls of grated Pecorino and Parmigiano mixed together until smooth. At this point, add olive oil while stirring with a spoon until you get the desired texture.
Boil the green beans, diced potatoes, and trenette in hot water for as long as necessary until al dente. Strain and season with the pesto, which you have previously diluted with a little cooking water, adding the potatoes, green beans, and more Parmigiano cheese.