Green Flag of Ligurian cuisine
My grandfather is 80 years old. When he was small, in Liguria, ate the pesto.
His grandfather died at 80 years. When his grandfather was a child, in Liguria, you ate the garlic sauce. And the pesto is not
exist.
The green sauce, which made famous the Liguria around the world is, in fact, a seasoning that has undergone significant changes and transformations over time, until you get to the recipe "temporarily permanent" today.
There are some, in recent times, the DOP asked, trying to "fix" a specification for the preparation of pesto, and the necessary ingredients.
In fact, one might ask whether it makes sense to limit the natural evolution of taste, and if, instead, all this has clear objectives behind trade protection in a world getting smaller, where local products become international and totally beyond the control of the original manufacturer.
Before pesto, garlic
If we trace the origins of the current pitch, we need not delve into centuries of history: he was born and has established itself in a period from the beginning of the end of the 800 900.
But if we want to find out how we arrived at the pitch we have to go much further. Both in time and space.
In a collection of cuneiform documents belonging to Yale University (USA) are the top three boards that had been exchanged for drug prescriptions, and that after careful consideration, were soon revealed collections of culinary recipes. written in Akkadian and dated about 1700 BC, are the first document of historic recipes and garlic makes his first appearance as a culinary ingredient.
This bulb is thought originating in Central Asia and India, was brought to the West through trade and movements of peoples, to arrive very early in the Mediterranean basin. Since there is writing, it is reported in Greece, Egypt, Palestine, until you get to Rome and from there spread throughout the known world.
always consumed for its virtues, has accompagnato l'umanità nel suo percorso gastronomico fino ai giorni odierni.
Nella storia è consumato da solo, oppure inserito come ingrediente in molti piatti, fino a crearne condimenti veri e propri. Le prime salse all'aglio di cui si ha notizia, erano realizzate con vari elementi liquidi, come agresto (succo di uva acerbo), aceto, succo d'arancia o da vino, erano cioè salse non unte, amalgamate senza l'utilizzo di condimenti grassi, né di origine animale (burro), tantomeno vegetale (olio di oliva).
L'agliata (agiadda o aié in dialetto ligure), una salsa medioevale diffusa in tutta Italia, a base di aglio pestato, potrebbe essere considerata tra le prime greasy sauces, made with olive oil and gastronomy. Of this there are several versions, especially related to the production area. Thus we find the garlic with olive oil ponentino Ligurian hinterland, while the coast was a favorite vinegar.
Val Pentemina over Genoa, bordering the provinces of Alessandria and Piacenza, the version includes the cream (whipped cream) for collecting outcrop. All recipes sauces of garlic that have been handed down by tradition, provide for variations in the ingredients, both for their availability (walnuts, pine nuts, milk, oil) for the evolution of the cook. The
pentemino minced garlic, in particular, contains all the ingredients of the pesto with the replacement of milk cream and basil.
After the garlic, basil
How has entered the basil in the minced garlic, we can not know for sure, but we have the original recipe for a sauce that accompanied vegetable soups and that was, perhaps, the evolution of a previous garlic and basil sauce, which was added the cheese. In "The Genoese cook," the title of a collection of recipes from Genoa in 1863, the author shows the proportion of cheese sauce in a mix of parmesan cheese and Holland (which were highly popular in Genoa, because of historically privileged trade with the Netherlands, see previous post), later replaced with pecorino cheese (fresh or aged, depending on your taste) in the city, and the 'prescinseua "in the Levant and Tigullio (variation still present). Were also mentioned, in place of basil, other herbs such as parsley or marjoram.
Pesto present had not yet defined.
Then, after a few years, copying the recipe and add many more (perhaps too many), Emanuele Rossi he published his book "The True Genoese cook easy and inexpensive way of preparing or e cuocere ogni genere di vivande ". Nel 1910, Emerico Romano Calvetti, facendo una stringata sintesi delle due cuciniere, dà una sua versione, citando la ricetta n° 39, la battuta o savore d'aglio , con la eliminazione definitiva del formaggio olandese.
Ancora nel 1918 un ufficiale genovese dell'esercito, Giuseppe Chioni, scrisse un libro di ricette intitolato Arte culinaria , che tra gli ingredienti del pesto indicava: basilico, aglio, prezzemolo, cipolla, droghe , formaggio sardo.
Nessuna traccia ancora dei pinoli. La conclusione ovvia che si può trarre è che l'uso dei pinoli (o delle noci come riportanto alcune ricette) nella preparation of the pesto is a very recent practice. For this reason
"hook" the recipe of pesto to a PDO, a traditional tendency to limit the subsequent changes and developments of this sauce so much that has changed over time. Although, perhaps, temporarily save the pockets of some local producer of "pesto in a jar PDO.
More sensibly, and I would say with great foresight, has been attributed to the production of the DOP its main ingredient: basil.
The "typical" of Ligurian basil
to get a unique pesto Genovese basil is right, or rather three of its 69 varieties.
Over the years we have established in Liguria some varieties suitable for the production of basil basil typical geneve, and characterized by the absolute absence of any hint of mint, a very intense aroma and pleasant, as well as a coloring leaves very tenuous. The characteristics described above, it is easy to be found also in the subsequent processing of the raw material, are determined by the particular climatic conditions of Liguria.
Dario Bressanini, in an article in the online edition of Scientific American Italian version, fully analyzed in some studies that have been carried out on the basil. In a nutshell, this shows that the methodology used in the cultivation and selection of seedlings of basil as in Liguria, has a scientific basis, even if achieved empirically and attempts by our farmers. The size of the crop, so the age, sun exposure, methods of working to reduce it to basil pesto, are all important elements that are reflected in the success of a sensory Ligurian pesto, Genoa or better.
The same plants, grown elsewhere, are subject to an alteration in the development of aromatic oils and alter, ultimately, the success of a pitch that has the same aromi di quello che si può consumare in riviera. Del resto, mio nonno già sapeva che se avesse mandato una piantina di basilico genovese a suo cognato di Cuneo, sarebbe cresciuta con un forte sentore di menta, e quindi preferiva rimandarlo a casa con dei barattolini di pesto coperto da un velo d'olio.
Ma allora, quale è la ricetta definitiva del pesto?
La ricetta "definitiva" del pesto
La risposta non è semplice perchè non è unica.
La base da cui si potrebbe provare a partire è quella della ricetta del consorzio genovese del pesto , quel consorzio che come abbiamo visto in apertura sta cercando di ottenere la DOP. E' sicuramente una ottima base di partenza e che permette la riuscita di un ottimo pesto, carico delle sfumature aromatiche tipiche di come lo si consuma oggi a Genova e dintorni. Un profano, ovvero un non-ligure, seguendo la ricetta indicata sopra riuscirà ad ottenere un ottimo pesto, ma per un ligure la cosa è differente:
in ogni singola casa si realizza il pesto come si è abituati, con le percentuali di ingredienti che non vengono mai misurate sul bilancino, ma aggiunte ad occhio, o meglio a palmi, manciate e pizzichi, dalla massaia che lo sta preparando e che lo ha preparato e visto preparare innumerevoli volte sin da piccola.
Del resto il senso del gusto si origina allo svezzamento and grows and evolves throughout our lives, but we will come back on this in another post.
We have seen how the cebiche plate, elected representative of Peru, has evolved over 2000 years of history, so the pesto, the son of previous culinary traditions, and according to the area of \u200b\u200bproduction, could see the addition or substitution of ingredients: pine nuts with walnuts, prescinseua to wheat or sheep, and so on.
remain unchanged only garlic, olive oil and basil, these are fundamental to reach the sublime aroma of Ligurian pesto.
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