The First Pesto Had no Basil

The word is old: pestâ, "to pound", already appears in the verse of the Genoese Anonym, and in the sixteenth century Paolo Foglietta mentions «ro pesto dri mortè» – "the pesto of the mortars" – but it is a paste of garlic and walnuts. Basil (Genoese baxaicò, straight from the Greek) joins the garlic as a pasta dressing only in the eighteenth century, in the comedies of Steva De Franchi; as late as 1851 Casaccia’s dictionary still allows marjoram or parsley in pesto, and the first codified recipe arrives in 1863.

From there the word tours the world: pistou in Provence, pesto in Gibraltar and Buenos Aires, even baseikòo, "basil", in Seychellois Creole. Genoa’s most "typical" sauce is, like every word, forever on the move.