Moretum, an ancestor of pesto
very, very distant ...
EVERYTHING YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT basil pesto and you've never dared to ask
third and final installment
gradually from the tables of the people of the pesto reaches the dinner table "scignuri" and the kitchens of the restaurants, and encoding of the recipe - at least of the ingredients "required" - begins to be a matter of respect and tasty challenges, triumphs, basil, pace, however, Paganini who had written a recipe in which basil and marjoram (another cult Ligurian) seemed interchangeable .
Since the 50s the tourism boom attracts swarms of visitors to the Riviera Valley and foreigners, all eager for a place in the sun and ... al ristorante, possibilmente di fronte a un piatto di mandilli de saea profumati di basilico (e seguiti dall’onnipresente frittura di pesce). Una squisitezza che si cerca di “replicare” anche a casa grazie alla rivoluzione delle rivoluzioni: infatti i mitici mortaio di marmo (apuano) e pestello di legno duro vengono via via sostituiti dai frullatori, e poi da efficientissimi robot mixer: meno fatica, meno tempo, più pesto! Quanto al mixer, ponendo preventivamente le lame in frigo e utilizzandolo poi ad impulsi brevissimi, il prosaico calore non distrugge più di tanto gli aromi essenziali delle foglioline…
E, per i più pigri o maldestri, la GDO alimentare (ai tempi si chiamavano superette…) inizia to offer all year round "crushed" industry, which was, however, it appeared difficult to pronounce an opinion.
The rise in popularity of pesto is unfortunately also the exponential growth of counterfeiting, especially abroad. The world's most popular salsa cruda becomes the object of numerous attempts at imitation, so the counter-offensive snaps in 2005, the Ligurian and Genoese basil gets the PDO (Protected Designation of Origin), while associations and Chambers of Commerce is committed to the defense of the original, by being involved in the protection of typicality. But now history is today, to finally seal the Genoese as an ingredient but also a dressing, recognizes the 800 already at the end of his majesty Reboul Provencal chef, no? ...
After this rapid incursion into the biography of the pesto, I set out to objectify as much as possible the conclusions. To this end, I chose the words above partes of a "foreigner" (for us in Liguria, the forests are all the others ...), the American Fred Plotkin, a singer from decades of the glories of Italian cuisine and bon vivant "Camogli". In Recipes from Paradise (1996), an act of love for food and wine from the title of Liguria, pesto Plotkin devotes more than a dozen pages of insights, tips and recipes. The beginning sounds powerful: "Pesto, the bewitchingly Perfumed That green sauce is ubiquitous in the cooking and the Hearts of Every Ligurian is now a citizen of the world ", pesto, salsa verde from the heady scent everywhere in the kitchen and in the heart of each Ligure, stands today in the city world ... the author continues: "There is no single, definitive preparation for pesto," there is no one definitive recipe for pesto, "it Varies a bit from town to town in Liguria, just like a dialect, in Liguria it varies from one location to another, just as the dialect (an apt metaphor and evocative). Not only that, Plotkin clear: even in the same place, provided two chefs the same ingredients and dosages, the results appear diversi “because of the hand of eye of the person who makes the pesto”, a causa della mano e dell’occhio della persona che fa il pesto. Quindi, nessuno detiene verità uniche e sacre sul pesto: la responsabilità, per così dire, spetta a tutti gli amanti di una salsa che ha seguito nel tempo l’evolversi delle vicende di uomini e luoghi, come una profumatissima lezione di storia.
Ci sia nondimeno concesso di affermare che l’attuale ricetta più “consolidata”, ovvero aglio *** - pinoli - sale grosso - basilico - fiore sardo - parmigiano - olio extravergine, lavorando gli ingredienti nella giusta sequenza, col mortaio per buon amico e il mixer solo se si ha davvero fretta, regala emozioni oggettive e indimenticabili… Col pestello, mi raccomando, ruotare delicatamente gli ingredienti, senza ammaccarli rudemente dentro il mortaio. Quanto al pesto da aggiungere al minestrone (ormai pronto e fuori dal fuoco), suggerisco di eliminare i pinoli ed eventualmente sostituirli con una manciata di funghi freschi affettati, oppure secchi, già ammollati una mezz’ora in acqua tiepida.
Chi voglia cimentarsi col pesto, trova ovviamente la ricetta su Liguricettario ( http://liguricettario.blogspot.com/2010/09/il-pesto-genovese-pesto-di-basilico-al.html ), l’antologia del meglio di Liguria in cucina (trova dunque anche le altre 5 ricette al mortaio).
Long live pesto, lunga vita al pesto, e Bon appetit!
* sproc or verjuice, juice of unripe grapes grown much (known as rural) already in July, a time to meet as acidifying constant rarity of lemons. The grapes were crushed in small barrels, then the must is fermented in the sun or boiled, reduce it. The finest verjuice was also sieved. In medieval times, there are indeed many descriptions and some miniatures, was preserved, flavored, spicy, to be able to use all year round, even then - for example - with stews and roasts, but also in soups and drinks. It was thick sauce and, overall, easy to carry. Especially if it is still in the Marches, much less in Lombardy one of the homelands
** Moretum, cheese (pecorino) "pseudo-Virgilian, aromatic, eg. with garlic, coriander and celery. The word is not derived from a mortar. In Apicius, passim, in addition to the herbs are fresh, which is approaching the recipe is the pseudo Virgil to Ovid (Fasti 4.371). The Moretum should always include garlic, but known as the Apicius abhorred. Condiment moretaria was, in turn, a sauce with herbs, spices, honey, garum ... sort of keeps the delicate fish aromatic married, i read, the thistles ...
*** make me smile ... those who imply that everything Ligurian pesto should be done only with garlic "Vessalico" As far as I need?
Louise Puppo, Director of the Italian Association IEA Etnogastronomi
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