Eventually here it is! This is THE article where you will find out all you must know about Genoese pesto: the right ingredients, the right tools, the original recipe and all the secret tips & tricks of Genoese cooks on how to make pesto. After having read this ultimate guide to pesto sauce, you will be ready to prepare it as local and obtain the very flavour of a real Genoese pesto!

1. THE RIGHT INGREDIENTS

BASIL –Basil first of all. It must be very fresh, preferably with small leaves which gives a gentler taste and not that minty. Smaller leaves are better  as you can crush them easily in the mortar. In Genoa we traditionally use basilico di Pra type. The best one is that originally grown in Pra, a small area just outside Genoa, as well as that grown along the slopes clinging on the sea along the coast between Genoa and Savona, such as  in Celle Ligure at Azienda Agricola Paolo Calcagno. Leaves should be washed only if necessary (organic basil will be the best option), as washing them removes some of the essential oils that give pesto its aromatic flavour. If you wash them remember to dry them very well with the salad spinner before making your pesto sauce (especially if you do it in the mortar: water in fact makes the operation of crunching quite difficult and the pesto too watery). If you can’t  make pesto just after shopping,  the best way to preserve the freshness of the basil even for a couple of days is the following: clean it with water, dry it with the salad spinner and put it in a metal pan, close with a lid and keep it in the warmer part of the fridge.

Miss the right basil at home? Why don’t you try to grow “sweet basil” (this is the right cultivar) at home? It is extremely easy! Have a look at the post “How to grow basil: the ultimate guide”.“ published on the Kitchn.

GARLIC –If you use “new garlic” (on the market – in Italy – generally from July to December) you can indulge without risking a too powerful pesto as it is less pungent. If you use “old garlic” (you find it on the market from January to May) it is better to use less, as it is more pungent, and to remove the inner green bit which is very strong and can cause indigestion. In any case garlic must be adjusted while making pesto in order to obtain a balanced flavour. Finally, quality of the garlic is quite important in the recipe because it doesn’t really get cooked. In the Italian Riviera original pesto recipe the right garlic is the one grown in Valle Arroscia (a valley in the backcountry of Albenga, Italian Riviera west coast) and named Aglio di Vessalico. It has an intense spicy and sweet flavour and special organoleptic qualities that makes it very digestible.

PINE NUTS – All Italian Riviera sauces made in the mortar bears some nuts inside, always. This is a heritage from the Arabian people, with whom Genoese did business for many centuries. In some part of the Italian Riviera pesto is made also with walnuts. No shame for this, all the traditional recipes must be respected. However, the authentic Genoese pesto sauce is made with pine nuts, preferably the one cultivated in Tuscany, from Pisa precisely. They are quite expensive, but the good news is that you don’t really need many to make your pesto (a couple of spoons may suffice). Pine nuts are important because they give a sweet flavour to pesto and confer a certain creaminess due to the oils that they contain.

CHEESE – Some recipes call only for parmesan cheese, some add also matured pecorino cheese (which is more spicy and salty). In this case the proportion should be 1/4 pecorino cheese and 3/4 parmesan cheese. Somebody prefers a more “rude” pesto and uses more pecorino than parmesan (in the last year spent holding pesto cooking classes I actually discovered that I love some pecorino cheese in the pesto, it gets a stronger personality). In any case, as to parmesan cheese, it is better to choose an old parmesan cheese (matured at least 24-30 months). Old parmesan, indeed, melt better with the sauce and gives a more defined and harmonic taste. Young parmesan, on the other hand, tends to get sticky when heated and will cause your pesto to stick to the bottom of the pasta plate.

EXTRA VIRGIN OLIVE OIL – The perfect oil is an extra virgin olive oil from the Italian Riviera, which is delicate and not too pungent.  Olive oil plays a very important role in pesto sauce: it melts and amalgamate all the ingredients, encapsulate the essentials oils given off the basil leaves and prevent your pesto to oxidize keeping its sparkling green colour.

2. THE RIGHT TOOLS

MARBLE MORTAR AND PESTEL– These have been the main tools of Genoese cooks for centuries, the only mean for smashing food. Traditionally, therefore, pesto is made in the mortar. You can do pesto in the food processor, of course. However, notwithstanding the progress made in the last century, pesto made in this way still have a taste and a look far better than pesto made with a food processor. This because basil leaves in the mortar are actually “torn up” by the pestel and not cut. In this way the green essential oils contained in the basil leaves come off perfectly. Furthermore, the marble of the mortar is cold and this prevents the oxidation of basil. Pesto made with the mortar, therefore, is definitely tastier, more scented and pleasantly light green.

You would like to prove yourself hand-making pesto but miss marble mortar and pestle? No problem! You can buy them on-line. If you live in Italy or in Europe you can go directly to the Etsy online shop of La Marmotecnica, the biggest produces of marble mortar in Carrara (the mortars that Genoese actually use). If you live in the U.S. go on Williams Sonoma  website, they  actually sell the very marble mortars of La Marmotecnica.

FOOD PROCESSOR – If you do not have enough time or a marble mortar at your disposal you can do pesto sauce in the food processor as well, of course. There are however some tricks to adopt, especially in order to minimize oxidation:

– Sometimes before making pesto put the food processor bowl and the blades in the fridge to make them very cold.

– Use the food processor intermittently. In this way the blades revolving will not cause too much heat.

– If available use an immersion blender, don’t ask me why but the pesto comes off better.

As to the pesto recipe using the food processor, the ingredients are obviously the same, though for making pesto sauce in the food processor it is advisable to double or triple the doses (you can then stock the sauce in the freezer for even a couple of months).

On the other side, ingredients shall put in the food processor in the following order: garlic, pine nuts and half of the extravirgin oil. Mix until they become a cream. Add basil and mix. Add cheese and mix. Add the second half of oil but gently melt with a spoon (in order to avoid the oil emulsify). In the end adjust with salt.

3. SECRET TIPS & TRICKS

1. Remove all stems from the basil leaves. The stems, in fact, not only contain water but also bring a bitter taste.
2. Use a sweet garlic and always remove the green tip inside.
3. Never sharply cut or smash the basil leaves but gently rotate the pestle along the mortar walls, so that the leaves are “torn up” and free their essential oils.
4. Use a seasoned Parmesan cheese. In addition to give a more intense flavour, it avoids pesto sticking to the bottom of the plate when pasta is seasoned.
5. Taste during each step in the process and adjust accordingly, because garlic and basil are not always the same! The very secret of pesto is balance, the right equilibrium among all the ingredients! If the pesto comes out too salty, add less parmesan cheese and/or if necessary less salt to the pasta water.
6. Finish the process as soon as possible to prevent the pesto from oxidizing.
7. Cover the pesto with a thin layer of extra-virgin olive oil always to avoid oxidation.

4. PESTO RECIPE

Watch the full episode of Flavors of Genoa on how to order pesto.

Making pesto is only part of the story.

If you’re planning a trip to Genoa, one of the questions you’ll soon face is: which pasta should I order? Trofie, trenette with potatoes and green beans, mandilli de saea, gnocchi… the choices can be surprisingly confusing.

In this episode of my Youtube series Flavors of Genoa, I take you inside one of Genoa’s traditional restaurants to show you the different ways locals enjoy pesto and how to order it like a local.

Where to eat pesto in Genoa

If you’d like to taste authentic pesto while you’re in Genoa, these are a few places I happily recommend.

• Il Genovese – A restaurant dedicated to traditional Genoese cuisine, known for its handmade pasta and pesto.
• Mangiabuono – An informal trattoria in the historic center, serving traditional Genoese dishes, including trofie and gnocchi with pesto.
• Trattoria Rosmarino – Traditional Ligurian cooking in the heart of the city, with a fresh and well-balanced pesto.

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Experience pesto beyond the recipe

If this guide has made you curious about Genoese pesto, the best place to discover it is here in Genoa.

You can join one of my cooking classes, where we’ll prepare pesto together from scratch using a traditional marble mortar, or explore the city’s food culture on one of my food tours.

If you prefer to discover Genoa at your own pace, my Genoa Food Guide includes over 120 carefully selected food addresses, from traditional restaurants (where to find more and more pesto!) and focaccerie to bakeries, gelaterie, wine bars and many other local favorites.

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The post Pesto Genovese Recipe: The Complete Guide (+ Video & Where to Eat It in Genoa) appeared first on A Small Kitchen in Genoa.

The name “Panera” comes from the contraction of the words “panna” (cream) and “nera” (black) because Panera is actually a coffee-stained whipped cream. And indeed the taste is just that: of latte macchiato, something less than cappuccino.

Be careful, it’s not a coffee ice cream!

It’s light, fluffy. The real, traditional one, which is sold in the best ice cream shops in the city, has no eggs inside. Just whipped cream, coffee and sugar.

Today the recipe is also listed at the Ministry of Agriculture as a typical product of Liguria (although produced only in Genoa).

It has the same taste everywhere then. Wrong! Every gelato shop has its own recipe (secret) and the result I swear is always different.

Some place make it more full-bodied, some more sweetened, some with a more intense taste of coffee. In short, each gelateria is a different experience. For this reason I suggest to the most greedy in a summer afternoon to take a “Panera tour” to discover the one they like best.

I already have clear ideas: my favorite is that of Cremeria Buonafede, in Via Luccoli, the heart of the historic center of Genoa. It is a historic Genoese workshop (dating back to 1913  ) that of the real Panera – whose recipe is handed down from 4 generations – has made its flagship  https://www.cremeriabuonafede.it/i-nostri-gusti/

The history of Panera

The origins of Panera seem to date back to the early 19th century. It is said, between myth and legend, that it was born by chance: a careless waiter stumbling poured some coffee on a cup of whipped cream, and from then the brilliant invention was born.

Traces of the famous cream and coffee semifreddo can already be found in the ancient cookbook “La Vera Cuciniera Genovese”  by Emanuele Rossi published in 1862.

Moreover, some argue that the invention of the “black cream” is attributable to the ice cream shop ” Gelateria Amedeo” in Boccadasse, which would have invented it in 1927 and from there this semifreddo would have spread in the other Genoese ice cream shop.

While the local sweets producer Preti says that it was the genius of its founder, Giovanni Preti- when the sweets factory was still only a renowned pastry shop in the center of the – to invent the “Gelato alla Panera”.

As it happens with all recipes that become traditional dishes, we will never know the truth!

Before jumping to the panera recipes (with or without ice cream maker) you have to know that I’ve visited some of my favorite gelato shops (including Buonafede) in one of the episodes of my Flavors of Genoa series, on youtube.

Here I will let you discover some other really unexpected gelato flavors very traditional of my city.

Genoa has lot of food secrets to discover!

You can watch the video on Youtube as well.

Recipe for making Panera at home.

If you own an ice cream maker,  you can recreate at home  Panera semifreddo like the one you can find in Genoese ice cream parlors. This is the recipe a friend kindly gave me:

Ingredients

• 1 litre of fresh cream to be whipped
• 2 two cups of strong coffee
• 2 ounces of sugar

Procedure

Pour the cream in a saucepan and add the coffee. When it starts to boil add the sugar and let it melt stirring. Remove from the fire.

When the mixture is cold pour it into the ice cream maker and proceed as usual to make ice cream.

Once ready, pour the mixture into a sorbet and let it cool to obtain a semifreddo with a creamy consistency.

If you don’t have an ice cream maker at home, like me, don’t despair! I have a recipe to prepare a coffee semifreddo that, although not strictly adherent to tradition because it involves the use of eggs, is incredibly good and the result from the point of view of taste is very close to that of the real Genoese Panera.

It’s the recipe inherited from Margherita, the mother of my best friend during elementary school. I spent whole afternoons at their house and in the freezer a tile of Panera for snack was never missing. I remember that we always ate it sitting on the kitchen table (never on the chairs) because this made us feel older. Margherita also put a handful of chopped walnut kernels in her Panera. Yes, I know, they are not traditional, it is a culinary license, but it is a perfect addition because it gives crunchiness and that thrill of the unexpected in your mouth!

It’s a recipe that brings with it many carefree memories and I’m really happy to share it here.

Where to taste Gelato in Genoa?

If you’re in Genoa, there are still a few places where panera is made with care, following a tradition that hasn’t changed much over time.

Gelateria Profumo,
A historic gelateria in the city center, known for its traditional flavors. Their panera is smooth, balanced, and deeply aromatic.

Cremeria Buonafede,
One of the ancient places selling panera, with great attention to ingredients and texture. Their version is rich, creamy, and very satisfying.

These are just a couple of places to start.

In my Genoa Food Guide, you’ll find a much broader selection of gelaterie, along with practical tips on what to try.

Finally, if the above video made you want to taste Genoa beyond the screen, you can do it for real.

You can join me on a Genoa food tour through historic shops, bakeries, and markets, discovering the city through its flavors, step by step.

Buon appetito!

The post What Is Panera? Genoa’s Coffee Gelato Recipe (+ Video) & Where to Try It appeared first on A Small Kitchen in Genoa.

Focaccia in Genoa is ubiquitous. It is in our life from sunrise to sunset. We soak it in the cappuccino for breakfast (yes, we do, and it’s incredibly good), we give it to our children as a snack at school, at lunch goes hand in hand with bread in the basket, it is offered at parties and finally with a glass of white wine for aperitivo.

In the Middle Ages it was the convivial bread par excellence. It was eaten in church during marriages and then also during funerals (which in the long run annoyed the clergy that ended up forbidding its consumption in church).

In Genoa, focaccia sells like hot-cakes. Everybody buy at least a slice of focaccia together with their daily bread. The bakeries bake it from the very first hours of the morning and continue nonstop until mid-afternoon. Because Genoese focaccia gives its best freshly baked – ephemeral, like all good things, it does not remain fragrant more than one day – and Genoeses know this so they can wait silently in the store even 10 minutes to put their hands on a piece of focaccia sizzling with oil. Then normally less than a half will arrive at home because the rest will be devoured – more or less consciously – along the way, thanks to the fact that the bag, if the focaccia is hot, must remain open otherwise it soften, and you can imagine the scent that goes up straight to the nostrils…

Since every bakery, pizza shop, bar or sciamadda(typical Genoese gastronomy) in Genoa sells Genoese focaccia, how to recognize a good one? If you buy it in a bakery, in the early in the morning and still hot you are already on track.  But you can recognize perfect focaccia because it is thin (maximum 2 cm thick), it is studded with holes (called “œggi”, eyes) with a white and creamy center (the cream is formed by flour, water, salt and oil that are poured on the surface just before the oven), it is golden and bright with oil (focaccia must almost leak oil), it is crispy outside and soft inside, salted on the surface and never sour (which happens if it is kneaded with poor olive oil).

Then there are variations on the theme, such as focaccia with onions (attention it creates dependence… and keeps people away), the one with sage or with rosemary and the one with olives. Then each bakery indulges on topping as they please, so there are focaccia with cherry tomatoes, others with various vegetables and so on.

In my Youtube series “Flavors of Genova” I have made a video about Focaccia: here it is!

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The recipe of Genoese focaccia

If you have the right recipe, you can make a good Genoese focaccia  also at home. It is important to follow the procedure step by step, to respect the various stages of leavening and to use an appropriate pan according to the amount of dough to bake. In the recipe below the ingredients are calculated to obtain a dough to be rolled into a rectangular aluminum pan with low sides measuring 30×40 cm.

But first some practical tips:

• the oil: I prefer not to use extra virgin olive oil (I know it sounds strange) which has a too marked flavor and risks to alter the final taste. It is better to use a good Italian olive oil and then brush the focaccia only once cooked with extra virgin olive oil.
• the holes: you shall made them using the fingertips of the three central fingers of your hand. The pressure must be marked (without breaking the dough, however) and as much as possible parallel to the surface. They must be many and very close to each other.
• leavening: always cover the dough with transparent film during leavening to avoid the surface getting dry.
• brine: the secret of Genoese focaccia is the emulsion of oil, water and salt that you spread abundantly on the surface before the last leavening. Do not worry if it seems a lot, it will evaporate during cooking and allow the holes to remain during cooking.

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Where to eat the best focaccia in Genoa?

Here are some bakeries in the center of Genoa whose Genoese focaccia – on my humble opinion – is worth trying. Then the last word is up to your taste!

In the historic center area:

• Antico forno della Casana (Vico della Casana 17 r)

Mercato Orientale area:

• Panificio da Mario (Via San Vincenzo 61r)

On the way to  Principe train station

• Le Bontà del Grano (piazza del Carmine 11r)

If you want to go deeper, these are just a starting point.
In my Genoa Food Guide, you’ll find a much broader selection of places, along with practical tips on when to go, what to order, and how to avoid the most common mistakes.

Want to go deeper?

If this video made you want to taste Genoa beyond the screen, you can do it for real.

You can join me on a food tour through historic shops, bakeries, and markets, discovering the city through its flavors, step by step.
Or you can start on your own, with my Food Guide: a carefully curated collection of places, stories, and tips to eat in Genoa like someone who truly knows it.

→ Discover the food tour
→ Get the Foodie Guide

Happy focaccia!

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The post Genoese Focaccia: Recipe, Video & Where to Taste It in Genoa appeared first on A Small Kitchen in Genoa.

I have always had a conflictual relationship with farinata, the famous Genoa chickpea tart.

Sincere and dispassionate love when bought  freshly baked, deep hate mixed with discomfort when I prepared it at home.

Yes, I’ve never been able to properly bake a farinata. Too high, too thin, burnt on top, raw at the  base, and vice versa, or “decomposed” into a thousand of greasy bubbles… and so on.

A clear culinary frustration because if you read the recipe it seems the simplest thing in the world: make a batter with water and chickpea flour, let it rest, pour it over a gently greased baking pan and bake in the hot oven.

That’s it, easy isn’t it? So I thought the problem had always been me…. until eventually someone taught me how to do it. 

It’s true that experience always shows, but those with more can guide you along the way, helping you grow in both skill and confidence.

After my tips on how to prepare a proper farinata, you will find a video on how farinata is baked in Genoa old shops.

Tricks to prepare a perfect farinata

Without other preambles (I’ll tell you the story of the farinata at the end of the recipe), here are the tricks to prepare a perfect farinata like the one sold in Genoa downtown alleys:

1. The proportions between the ingredients are fixed and invariable. 75% water, 25% chickpea flour and, on total, 1-0,8% salt and 12-10% oil.
2. The thickness of the chickpea tart is fundamental. It must be between 0.7 and 0.9 cm. Only the right amount of batter inside the pan guarantees that your farinata cooking remains moist underneath, cooked in the center and crispy above. For this reason, to each baking pan corresponds a quantity of batter and, consequently, different doses of ingredients. Here is a summary scheme (for a lighter result, less salty and oily, you can lower the amounts of salt and oil of 10% in the amounts below ) :

1. The perfect pan is round and in copper. Copper is in fact an excellent thermal conductor. The farinata, however, comes out good even in normal trays, even in the disposable one in aluminum!
2. The batter, without lumps, must rest at least 4 hours, better 8, at room temperature. The flour must absorb the water very well. Mix it every 2 hours and remove the foam that eventually forms on top (these are the impurities that the chickpeas release).
3. Salt should be added at the end, just before pouring the batter of your farinata into the pan.
4. No oil in the mixture. The oil – which can also be simple olive oil (yes, I know, the purists of extra virgin olive oil will quiver but the extra virgin olive oil with its taste so decided in cooking is likely to overpower all other flavors) – must only form a protective film inside the pan and cover over and under the batter. For this fundamental step some precautions are necessary: the pan must be already hot before pouring the oil, and then the farinata, inside; the farinata batter must be poured very slowly making it slide along a spoon placed in the center of the pan. In this way it will float over the oil without breaking its surface or mixing with it. The oil will then rise along the edges and cover the batter even on the surface. This will create a sort of “pajam” of oil that wraps the batter.
5. The oven must be very hot. The optimal temperature would be 300°C (570°F) but not all the home ovens reach it. So you set the maximum temperature and bake it in the lower shelf of the oven for 20-25 minutes (the time depends on the size of the pan) or until the farinata has turned golden. Then you Ttrn off the oven and turn on the grill function for 5 minutes to obtain a nice nut-colored crust on the surface.
6. Farinata MUST be eaten warm. This is the biggest advantage in preparing it at home! Once baked, sprinkle with black pepper, wait a minute and then serve!
7. You can season/empower farinata with some toppings before baking: rosemary springs, gorgonzola cheese, small whitebait or – when in season – with finely sliced fresh artichokes, which is my favorite variation!

If you’d like to see how farinata comes together, I’ve filmed the process as part of my Flavors of Genoa series, inside some of the city’s traditional wood-fired “sciamadde“.

Brief history of farinata

Farinata is one of the most representative dishes of Genoese street food. It is an ancient dish so popular that the Genoese give it a legend to remember one of the greatest achievements in the city’s history: the defeat of the Pisans in the Meloria battle (Pisa too was a Maritime Republic and it was a great rival of Genoa for the dominance over Corsica and Sardinia).

The year was 1284. It is said that on the return from the battle the Genoese fleet encountered a storm. The bags of chickpea flour on board the ships overturned and the flour mixed with the sea water that swept the decks. After the storm the sailors, exhausted and hungry, recovered the batter and put it to dry in the sun. The next day they tasted it and discovered its goodness. When they got home, they refined the recipe baking it in wood ovens and, in defiance of the won enemy, they called it “the gold of Pisa”.

A legend, certainly, because farinata dates back to Roman times and similar dishes – based on water and chickpea flour – are also typical of other Mediterranean regions: in Tuscany, in Pisa – in fact – you can eat cecina, in Livorno a cake of chickpeas, in Sardinia the fainé, in Sicily there are the famous panelleand in Provence a tart very similar to farinata and called socca. In short, the chickpea flour over the centuries has fed and conquered so many seafaring peoples!

Where to buy farinata in Genoa

If you’re in Genoa, there are still a few places where farinata is made the traditional way, baked in wood-fired ovens and served fresh from the pan.

Antica sciamadda

Delizie dell’Amico

Sa Pesta

If you’d like to explore Genoa through its food more deeply, there are two ways to do it.

You can join me on a food tour and experience these places with a local perspective, or explore on your own with my Genoa Food Guide — a broader collection of addresses and tips to help you navigate the city through its flavors.

→ Discover the Genoa food tour
→ Get the Genoa Foodie Guide

The post Farinata (Genoese chickpea flatbread): recipe, video and where to eat it in Genoa appeared first on A Small Kitchen in Genoa.

The locals here are very proud not only of their past, full of conquests and sieges, but also of their agricultural products from the mountains (including their notable EVO oil) and their culinary traditions.

In particular, they are very proud of a gigantic vegetable pie that has always been baked in a wood-fired oven directly on the stone slab, without a baking tray, and which was registered in 2007 as De.Co, Denominazione Comunale di Origine, to certify its historical link with the place.

This is the Tortun di Castel Vittorio, a Ligurian vegetable pie, but a bit unusual.

In fact, it is prepared with a single large disc of very thin unleavened dough (instead of many layers), which folded over itself encloses a filling of local zucchinis cut into very small cubes and placed strictly raw in the baking tray (in winter, field herbs are used), mountain potatoes, a handful of rice, and a bit of local cheese (Tuma of the valley, not easy to find outside the area).

The zucchinis that grow in Castel Vittorio are somewhat special because they are very large, light green, sometimes white. Similar to pumpkins, they need to be hollowed out, and the seeds removed before being cut. But the pie turns out great with any type of zucchini, as long as it is seasonal and fresh!

Every year in August, Castel Vittorio hosts the “Sagra del Tortun” with a culinary competition among housewives. Not to be missed! (check the date on the Proloco Facebook profile).

The recipe for Tortun di Castelvittorio

For the perfect success of this recipe, here are some small tips:

• Use only very fresh summer zucchinis, the small, light green, firm ones, maybe with the flower still attached. If you want to use Ligurian zucchinis, you can buy them online and receive them fresh at your home (in Italy and Europe) thanks to the online site Palatifini.it. You can buy both traditional Ligurian zucchinis and trumpet zucchinis!
• Pre-cook the rice very briefly, it will finish cooking inside the dough, absorbing the water released by the vegetables.
• Roll out the dough very thinly, but not too thin. There’s a risk it will burn before the filling is cooked.
• Trust me, there’s no need to blanch anything, the raw zucchinis and potatoes (cut very small) will cook wonderfully inside the dough.
• The Tuma cheese of the valley, unless you are from the far western Liguria, is difficult to find. You can replace it with another soft, lightly aged cheese.

The post Tortun di Castel Vittorio, an out of the ordinary Ligurian zucchini pie. appeared first on A Small Kitchen in Genoa.

Often, during cooking classes, my guests ask how old the pesto recipe is.

In their imagination (and perhaps in that of many Ligurians too), pasta with pesto has always existed on Ligurian tables, perhaps they imagine rustic tables with red and white checked tablecloths where giant plates of steaming trenette al pesto are ready to feed large families.

Each time I amuse myself by debunking this myth, as well as many others that now hover over Italian cuisine.

Surprisingly enough the Genoese basil pesto recipe we know now is not a very old recipe. In the panorama of the many traditional Ligurian and Genoese recipes, we can say that it is a youngster.

If you want to listed to the history of pesto (and discover many other interesting things about this iconic sauce) I was recently interviewed on this subject by UntoldItaly Podcast. You can listen to the episode tapping here.

Otherwise, keep on reading!

A brief history of basil pesto sauce

Truth is that the recipe of the most well known Ligurian green sauce – made with Genovese basil leaves, garlic, pine-nuts, parmesan cheese and EVO oil – is the result of endless, casual, experiments.

It’s a recipe that actually developed over the centuries.

Since middle-ages, a continuous mixing and pounding in the mortar of different ingredients – taking place in humble as well as in noble kitchens –  eventually lead to the magical pattern and there definitely crystalized. We are at the beginning of the ‘900.

The base sauce, the ancestor of pesto, was a sauce made of crushing garlic in the mortar and mixing it with olive oil. A very common seasoning for meat, fish and vegetables on Middle Ages tables. Garlic indeed with its antiseptic properties was normally used to sanitize food.

This is the main reason why pesto without garlic – becoming very popular in the last decade – to me is a nonsense.

Then, little by little, people started adding fresh herbs in the mortar. Liguria is well known for using fresh herbs as a main ingredient in lots of their recipes. So, they started adding in the mortar some fresh herbs picked in the backyard or on the window sill, but not necessarily basil. The oldest written recipes we have about pesto (backdating 1860) provides, indifferently, for parsley, marjoram, sage, basil, even them all together.

As to nuts, probably the first nuts used in this –  let’s call it  – “herby pesto sauce” were walnuts. Probably the Genoese learned to use walnut sauces for seasoning from the Muslims, with whom they had intense trades during Middle Ages. Still nowadays in Middle East cuisine we can find different walnut sauce recipes for seasoning meats.

Then walnuts were replaced by pine-nuts. It’s not easy to say when and why. Actually scrolling the few ancient basil pesto recipes we have, pine-nuts are never mentioned in the pattern of ingredients but for one recipe (in “La Cucina di Strettissimo Magro” from Padre Gaspare delle Piane”), especially written for “sacrifice days”  when animal products consumption was forbidden. And here probably pine-nuts were used in lieu of cheese to give creaminess to the sauce.

There are indeed some area, in the western backcountry of Liguria, where basil pesto still nowadays is made with walnuts instead of pine nuts. So, don’t worry, it’s not a heresy making basil pesto with walnuts: always better good walnuts rather than cheap, tasteless, bad pine-nuts! (but no cashew, please).

Coming to cheeses, the story is even more curious.

Today we primarily use Parmigiano Reggiano, preferably matured, over 24 months.

In the past, in lieu of – or jointly with – Parmigiano Reggiano Genovese, cooks used matured Pecorino cheese from Sardinia (“Fiore Sardo”). This because Sardinia was historically a “colony” of the Genova Marina Republic and most of the pecorino cheese produced in Sardinia used to be shipped to Genova and then from here sold elsewhere in the north of Italy. This cheese, therefore, was commonly available in Genoa markets at reasonable low prices.

Pecorino Sardo though has a spicy, salty, smoky flavor and tend to be overwhelming. This is why when we make pesto nowadays, or we skip it at all, or we use it in a very small percentage. Our palates are less “rude” than those of our ancestors!

For the very same reason (availability) some old recipes call for the Dutch cheese Edam (the one with the red wax skin) in pesto!  It may seem very strange, but again this is because of the historical intense commercial relationships between Genoa and The Netherlands: in Genoa there was a big community of Dutch, importing, consuming and selling their cheese on our markets. It was available and cheep.

I have to mention also that in the Easter villages outside Genova, in Golfo del Tigullio, it’s a tradition to add to basil pesto a tablespoon of prescinseua, our local fresh sour cheese/curd (something in between ricotta and yogurt), to give extra creaminess and some acidity to the sauce.

Finally, extra virgin olive oil has always been – jointly with garlic –  a pillar of the pesto recipe. Some old Ligurian cooks, though, does not disdain a nut of butter in the sauce, to make pasta al pesto even more delicious (just to let you know that this is the local hottest controversial topic when discussing with friends about the best pesto recipe).

In conclusion, the basil pesto recipe “codified” in the last decades probably was invented by chance.

Maybe one morning a home cook, after having crushed that fresh garlic clove in the mortar, looking around in the kitchen decided to put a handful of those shining basil leaves on the window sill, that grated Parmigiano left over from the evening before and those few pine-nuts laying in the jar. A pinch of rock salt, and then she smashed, pounded, crushed rhythmically swinging her hips in the summer breeze. She stared proud at her thin paste in the mortar, she poured a thin string of gold extra-virgin olive oil, stirred gently and WHAM, the magic had happened.

Some more things about pesto you may like to know.

A long time ago  I wrote on the blog  a complete guide for making pesto, with a description in depth of the essential (current) ingredients, my recipe of course (with mortar and with blender), and many tips and tricks to make it at home like a local.  You can read it here.

This year I have added a bunch of new private experiences to my offer. One of these is the “Basil Farm and pesto making experience”.

It’s a one- day visit to the iconic Ligurian basil sea-view greenhouses, with a pesto making experience and a traditional peasant lunch. This is a private experience for groups (min. 6 people). If you are interested, just send me an e-mail!

Finally, if you come to Genoa, I also organize basil pesto making classes as an optional additional experience to my Genoa Food tours.

Want to discover my advice on WHERE to eat or WHERE shop the best pesto in Genoa? Subscribe to my newsletter “Taste of Liguria” for reading the whole post

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In Italian cuisine, extra virgin olive oil is generally used as a condiment or as a base for fried foods. However, there are some regional dishes in which oil plays a really relevant role, becoming one of the main ingredients.

In Liguria, a region known for its abundance of olive oil, among the recipes that pay tribute to our “liquid gold”, there is the famous “Brandacujun”. It is a preparation very similar to mashed potatoes, where potatoes and boiled stockfish are crushed together and dutifully, generously, seasoned with extra virgin olive oil of the highest quality.

The curious name of the recipe probably comes from the Provençal verb “brandare”, which means “shake”, since the essential procedure for mixing fish and potatoes consisted, and still consists if you want to have fun, in grabbing by the handles and vigorously shake the pot in which the ingredients are closed (see video below).

The Brandacujun can be enjoyed as a single dish, perhaps accompanied by a fresh salad, or for a delicious summer aperitif as I propose here: spread on bread croutons with the addition of a local Taggiasca olive!
You can find below the video that I shot in collaboration with the oil mill Novella & Vignolo, a small oil mill in business for more than 150 years in Recco, in the Paradise Gulf with an equally ancient olive just grove overlooking the sea!

Below you can find the recipe of Brandacujun as I prepare it. A couple of tips before leaving you to the recipe:

• Just the fun shaking of the pot may not be enough to mix the ingredients well, especially if it is hot and you lack the strength. You can very well mix vigorously with a wooden spoon. The optimal result is a consistent mash where you find it hard to figure out where the potato ends and the fish begins. Refrain blender.
• Add the oil first before mixing the ingredients, the vigorous “scramble” will facilitate the creaming of the potatoes.
• The other flavors – parsley, crushed garlic and lemon juice – add them before stirring, but Tienine always a little aside to adjust the recipe to your taste: each garlic tastes different, each lemon has a different acidity, each parsley has its own intensity. Taste, fix, try, fix… until your palate tells you it works. Even with salt, put it at the end and adjust it to your taste! Have fun!

Link Love:

Are you looking for fresh and light recipes for a summer aperitif? You can take a look at the recipe of stuffed zucchini flowers baked in the oven, or polpettone: the potato and green beans tart, which can prepared the day before and can be served at room temperature cut in bite cubes. Also eggplant patties, they are not bad!!

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For us Genoese, cheese fritters  represent the delicious destination of a trip out of town, between olive trees and lemons, overlooking the sea.

They are typical of the small village of Megli – a handful of narrow houses around a sanctuary overlooking the Paradiso Gulf. Here, every year on Easter Monday, the focaccette fair is organized.

Megli’s focaccette are prepared with the same ingredients as Recco’s most famous cheese focaccia, but they are fried, and this, you can imagine, makes a certain difference.

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All you need is a fresh fish and a handful of flavors that speak of Liguria: tomatoes, olives, oregano and an excellent extra virgin olive oil like that of the Frantoio Novella & Vignolo, an mill that for more than 160 years processes olives in Recco, almost on the sea side (as you can see in the picture above!).

Did you notice the oil bottle? Yes, it is beautiful and special and she also talks about Liguria: it is in fact handmade in porcelain by the Mazzotti ceramics factory in Albisola, one of the most famous ceramics hub in Italy since centuries!

Here below you can find the video recipe of this amazingly easy and tasty Ligurian dish! Enjoy the sound, the music and imagine the flavours!

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Actually there are two types: sweet and salty. The sweet one is called “Latte dolce fritto”, and is a kind of custard. The salty one is called “Latte brusco”, which is similar to a very thick and flavorful bechamel sauce.

And it is precisely “Latte brusco” the recipe that I prepared yesterday with Frascheri milk, a that tastes Liguria.

You can prepare this dish to make a delicious Genovese mixed fried, as is traditional, or you can serve it as an appetizer, which is what I often do.

The milk has such a delicious creamy flavor that compliments the other dishes. However, be careful not to make too much or people will fill up on just this appetizer!

This post was created in collaboration with Frascheri Italia S.p.A of Savona. With their very fresh and top quality products, I also cooked cavolini with cream, the gasse with butter and sage and the ricotta fritters!

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Small enough to eat in one bite, big enough to have to pull out some lion’s mouth.

Their recipe is already found in the first book of Ligurian cuisine of the mid ‘800, where they are called “cavulin” and certainly since then there is no pastry shop in Genoa that on Sunday early in the morning does not show in the shopping window a large tray, already empty for lunch.

However, why not cooking them at home? The preparation of the dough (choux dough) is really simple and success is

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If you are looking for inspiration for your Easter feast, Today I share with you the most iconic Ligurian Easter recipes. These are the dishes that more ofter we serve here in Liguria on our Easter tables.

Most of them are seasonal recipes prepared with those foods that since ever appears on the market stalls at the beginning of spring. Also the Catholic influence is manifest, in that many ingredients have a religious meaning both linked to Christ life and resurrection (Easter indeed) and to the Lent sacrifice period.

All the recipes are already on the blog, so just click on the one that intrigue you most and start cooking it!

A suggestion: celebrate bringing the spring on your table! Put some wild flower in the center of your table, prepare a big fresh salad to accompany your main courses and if possible add flowers to it as well!

Liguria Easter Starters

Fava beans pesto

This is a tribute of what grows most in our fields in early spring: fava beans!
A fresh spring cream to spread on croutons or on boiled eggs made with fresh fava beans, fresh pecorino cheese and fresh mint. An explosion of flavors!
It is prepared all over the Region but is registered as a traditional local food (DE.CO) of Cervo Ligure, the place where my grandfather’s family came from.

Panissa fritta

This is a jummy appetizer, perfect for starting nibbling with a cold glass of white wine in your hand.
These are kinda “fritters” though with no potato inside. They are made with a cheek pea tart, cut in pieces and deep fried. They are a perfect vegan appetizer too!

Pansoti

This is the second most famous stuffed pasta of Liguria after ravioli.
The filling is made of green leaves vegetables and few cheese. Traditionally indeed the greens are a mix of seasonal wild herbs picked in the fields, what we call here prebuggiun.
Their traditional seasoning is a yummy cream made with walnuts, the so called walnut sauce (salsa di noci).

Piccage verdi

This is the Liguria green fresh pasta. Usually the green is made adding to the pasta dough borages or nettles.They are wonderful when seasoned with a earthy rich  dry mushroom sauce.

Torta pasqualina

Torta Pasqualina is a savory pie with a filling of artichokes and chards, cheese and whole eggs inside as a symbol of life and rebirth.
This is the most iconic Ligurian dish for Easter, the pie that all families prepare since centuries to celebrate the rebirth of Jesus.
Pasqualina name indeed comes form Pasqua, Easter in Italian. On the blog you can find the recipe of Pasqualina with artichokes.

Lettuce in broth (Lattughe ripiene in brodo)

Lettuce leaves stuffed with meat, flavored with fresh herbs and boiled in meat broth. It can be a main course or a first course, as well, though there is no pasta or cereal inside. This is a very common dish for Easter here in Genoa. My recipe is in Italian on the blog for the time being, need to translate it !!)

Lamb with artichokes

Lamb is the symbol of Easter, not only in Liguria or in Italy, but in may other countries and religions.
In our family is common to have it stewed with artichokes (a wonderful savors matching!).
Though you can find frequently also lamb ribs deep fried (agnello fritto) or lamb stewed with scramble eggs (agnello in fricassea).

Cima ripiena

Cima is a signature Ligurian dish for celebration days since centuries.
It was born as a dish of humble people, a way of pretending to bring on a table a big meat roast though actually its a bag made of veal belly stuffed with cheap ingredients such as eggs, vegetables and ofals.
We have it cold, cut in thin slices with salad. But the leftovers, if any, are wonderful breaded and deep fried!

!

Quaresimali

Quaresimali are small marzipan cookies of different shapes.
They are made just with almonds and sugar and traditionally they are flavored with bitter orange blossom water, and essence very common in Ligurian sweets cuisine.
Quaresimali are prepared and consumed here along all the Lent period as they are free of animal ingredients, so in compliance with the Catholic provisions.

Cavagnetti

Cavagnetti are traditional Ligurian Easter pastries. The name comes from the genoese dialect word “cavagna”, meaning baskets. Indeed they are small baskets of sweet leavened dough with an egg in their center, symbol of the rebirth.
And then of course big chocolate eggs that  kids love breaking to find the little surprise inside! To seal the feast, needless to say, coffee and limoncino! 

The post 10 traditional Ligurian recipes for Easter appeared first on A Small Kitchen in Genoa.

Try this, and then this, and then this. Which one do you like best? Sage, marjoram, rosemary? You don’t know how to decide! Maybe it’s better to try again.

Here’s what happens if you bring a steaming basket of aromatic herb cookies on the table. Everyone is happy to go spoiled for choice of the best. 

After all, how cannot be attractive some hot oven-baked savory cookies that give off a subtle scent of blooming meadows?  And how can they not call another taste when the first one has melted in your mouth in all its buttery fragrance? Then shall we talk about those leaves put there for decoration that alone are a joy for the eyes?

I add, on the cook’s side , that preparing them gives a great satisfaction. I convinced you, didn’t I?

A strategic tip: since they are excellent hot – and for this I recommend to take them to the table just out of the oven and wrapped in a napkin – you can prepare them in advance, spread them on the baking tray, and put them in the fridge before cooking.  Then, while you prepare a cocktail for your friends, they happily bake in the oven, just 10 minutes!

What cocktail to offer? I paired my aromatic herb cookies with a slightly alcoholic aperitif, prepared with my great spring passion: Aperitivo Fabbrizii.  A light liqueur (16%) with sweet notes, fragrant and markedly citrus, ideal for the first drinks outdoors.

To make it a little more sparkling, light and bitter, I mixed it (1/ 3) with tonic water Fever Tree, also with a citrus recall.  A few ice cubes, a slice of orange and off, the cocktail is served!

Don’t forget the cookies in the oven!

Some other ideas for a Ligurian aperitif?

If you are looking for other inspirations for your spring aperitif, always inspired by my sunny Liguria, then take a look at the post: “my Ligurian aperitif and the recipe of fried sage” where I explain you how to prepare everything that is normally on the table for a great aperitif with friends (including the fried sage made at the last minute), or look at the post: “our aperitif in the alley and the loaves” where I tell you about the summer aperitifs in our beach house, or rather outside, in the alley.

Other good recipes to prepare and offer to friends, while drinking few glasses, can be pancakes of borage, cod fritters, and crostini prescinseua and prebuggiun! There is plenty of choice, as for the biscuits with herbs!

But now here is the recipe of my aromatic herb cookies, have fun!

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You know I love bringing to light historical food finds, not only to let them live again on our table but also because some recipes as so freaking easy and beautiful!

I found this recipe in one of the most ancient Genoese cookbook, “La vera cuciniera Genovese, facile ed economica” published by Emanuele Rossi in 1865.

The author there describes the name of this pasta as follow:

“CHIAMASI GASSE NEL DIALETTO GENOVESE CERTE PICCOLE E CORTE STRISCE DI PASTA RIPIEGATE SU SE STESSE E CONGIUNTE ALLA ESTREMITÀ IN MODO DA DARE LORO L’ASPETTO DI CAPPII O GALANI (CIÒ CHE APPUNTO SIGNIFICA LA VOCE GASSE)”

““CALLED GASSE IN THE GENOESE DIALECT CERTAIN SMALL AND SHORT STRIPS OF DOUGH FOLDED ON THEMSELVES AND JOINED AT THE END IN ORDER TO GIVE THEM THE APPEARANCE OF LOOPS OR NOOSE (WHAT PRECISELY MEANS THE VOICE GASSE)”

“La vera cuciniera Genovese, facile ed economica” (Page.75, Recipe.135)

They are in fact rings of pasta, similar to Neapolitan paccheri, created by bending on them and sealing the edges of small strips of fresh pasta.

How to give prominence to a single shape of fresh pasta if not accompanying it with a very simple but excellent seasoning?

Butter, sage and parmesan. This is the trio that most of all, in my opinion, brings in triumph the delicate taste of fresh pasta wrapping it in a melting, fragrant embrace.

To season my Genoese gasse I used Frascheri butter, a butter obtained only with fresh milk produced in Liguria, the perfect protagonist of a simple first course where the few ingredients really make the difference, especially if excellent and Ligurian!

Need more inspirations and information on Liguria fresh pasta?

If you are curiose about Liguria pasta shapes you can have a look at my Liguria Food guide – Italian Riviera Tradizional pasta and where to buy ” there you will find an overview of all the shapes of pasta kneaded in Liguria since ever and some places where you can buy it.

If you are a fan of ravioli, then you cannot miss my Liguria Food guide – Italian Riviera stuffed pasta , where I recollect all the most famous dumplings & friends you can eat here.

In both articles you will find the link to get to the recipes on my blog!

The post An ancient Liguria fresh pasta shape: gasse appeared first on A Small Kitchen in Genoa.

This year, though, I developed a fritters’ recipe with ricotta cheese for Frascheri Italia, a Ligurian milk and cheese maker, a family run business since generations.

The result are these amazing ricotta fritters with the flavor of lemon, indeed the flavor of Ligurian gardens at the end of winter time.

They are so quick and easy to prepare and cook and they are incredibly yummy, soft and moist.
Here the recipe, enjoy it for Carnival or for any last minute party with kids!

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