You won’t have the basil variety highlighting il vero pesto genovese (“the true Genovese pesto”), but this pesto recipe of a Genovese friend is closest you’ll ever get to the vero pesto goodness. Felicita’ shared her recipe with me when I visited her in Camogli, on the coast just outside of Genova. A superb cook, she’s been cooking “alla genovese” since she was old enough to hold a spoon, carrying on the culinary traditions of her mother, grandmother… and so on down the line.
And her pesto stars that variety of basil cultivated on the Ligurian coast (and which gives the Genovese pesto such a rich perfume), the fundamental base for this traditional dish. This variety of basil has a small convex leaf, oval-shaped; color is delicate green. Prime characteristic: its delicate fragrance. Ocimum basilicum arrived in Europe from Africa with the Romans and this basil quickly becomes the basic herb of Ligurian cuisine and of course, of the famous genovese pesto (from “pestaio”, i.e., the pestle for grinding the basil in the mortar).
Il pestaio.
The Region of Liguria has now achieved DOP (“denominazione d’origine protetta”, i.e., “Protected Designation of Origin”) status for its pesto, which means that “pesto alla genovese” can ONLY come from the Genova area. DOP recognition has affirmed the Genovese saying, “Se il basilico é foresto, di sicuro non é pesto” (“If the basil is foreign, then it can’t be pesto”).
Your pesto might be missing the highly perfumed DOP Ligurian basil – and we don’t have it here in our Umbrian garden, either – but thanks to Felicita’, a close proximity to the genovese goodness can showcase your next summer pasta dish.
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