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Pesto: how old is this recipe?

Fun facts and legends on the most loved sauce in Liguria

The name of this sauce, so the Liguria is famous in the world, comes from the original preparation method: the pounding of the leaves and other ingredients in the traditional murta '(mortar) marble with pestelludi wood.
The pesto recipe has very ancient origins, dating back to the mid-nineteenth century, but it is an ancient tradition that has led to the birth of one of the most popular condiments in the world.
Historically, in fact, the Riviera has always been home and cradle of herbs (in fact, La Spezia owes its name to the ancient spice trade which was located in the area). The use of herbs has medieval origins and were mainly used to flavor dishes or the poor to enrich and decorate, in the case of the wealthy classes, the large flow. The recipe is apparently traced the evolution of a recipe much older, the aggiadda (garlic sauce), a sauce by mortar made of the thirteenth century and garlic which was used for storage of cooked foods.
The first to mention the modern version of the pesto was Giovanni Battista Ratto it the right Cucina Genovese in 1870.

The recipe: "Take a clove of garlic, basil (baxaicö) or failing that marjoram and parsley, Dutch cheese and parmesan grated and mixed together and fussy and pounded all in a mortar with a little butter until it is reduced to pulp. then untie it with fine oil in abundance. With this beat seasoned lasagna and gnocchi (troffie), enclosing a little 'hot water without salt to make it more liquid. "The legends about it, however, are manifold. Often cited is that of a convent between the hills of Genoa, Prà, dedicated to St. Basil. One of the monks of the monastery gathered the aromatic grass growing on those hills, basil, and pounding mortar with other simple ingredients obtained the first pesto - that over the centuries, then, was perfected. Or drawn some people think that the first written evidence of an ancient recipe, an ancestor of our Pesto, you can find in the Eclogues of Virgil: the farmer Similo dining with a spread focaccia moretum, a sauce made with coriander, rue, parsley and cheese pounded in a mortar and linked from olive oil.
Today there are many versions with which it is prepared, but the real Ligurian Pesto can still be tasted (and not regret it!) In the furthest corners of our cities.

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Pesto: how old is this recipe?

Fun facts and legends on the most loved sauce in Liguria

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