Pesto of Liguria

Three things define the cooking of Liguria: simplcity, poverty and oroginality. we keep it simple because we like the flavour of every ingredient speek for itself; a history of economic hardship has taught us never to waste anything; and the influence of other seafaring cultures – like the Normans, the Vikings and the Arabs – has made our cooking unicque in Italy.

The sauce called pesto (which literally means «pounded») is a perfect example.Simple to make, with inexpensive ingredients, its origin seems to lie with the Arabs hundreds of years ago. Authentic pesto alla Genovese has seven and only seven ingredients: basil, garlic, salt, pine nuts, olive oil, parmesan and pecorino. The crucial thing is to achieve a perfect balance , with no one ingredient overpowering the other. Having said that there is still much debate in Liguria about the desirable strength of the pesto, the amount of garlic used and the sharpness of the pecorino ; the closer you travel to Genoa the more garlicky and sharper with pecorino the pesto becomes.

while the Ligurians settled on basilas the focus of flavour and colour in pesto during the nineteenth century, other parts of Italy have adopted pesto to local tases. To give you a taste of many regional variations, included some pesto recipes from other regions, especially those in the south of italy.

• Linguine with tuscan pesto
• Fusilli with Sicilian pesto
• Spagetti with pistahio pesto
• Rigatoni with Calabrian pesto
• Fusilli with almond and mint pesto
• Linguine with orange pesto and eggplant
• Trofie with basil and walnut pesto