FOOD & WINE | Pesto & more
More or less, everyone in the world knows Italian food, but what about Ligurian versions? “This cuisine,” wrote Louis Inturrisi in the 1990’s in the New York Times “ is largely distinguished from other regional Italian cuisines by the things you expect to find that are missing. How is it possible that the cuisine of a port city, Genoa, that was once queen of the spice trade and a funnel for foods from the New World should be characterized by a lack of fish dishes, a restricted use of spices and a paucity of the revolutionary tomato?” These paradoxes are possible, because it was not the bankers or the spice merchants of Liguria that shaped its cooking, but the sailors! After voyages that lasted for months, they craved fresh vegetables, fruit and aromatic herbs more then fish. And the Ligurian area and interior is very rich, in this sense, offering vegetables, mushrooms and small places for breeding. The most salient feature is aromatic herbs such as basil, laurel, sweet marjoram and fennel and fresh vegtables such as zucchini, eggplant and lettuce. “The sailors’ yearning for the freshness of herbs (the dietitian would say for vitamins) instead of for dried spices”, continues Louis Inturrini, “probably explains the cult of basilico or basil in Liguria and its most famous dish, pesto”.
YCP MAGAZINE
95