Pesto Genovese: History, Ingredients and Method
Posted on October 24 2026
Pesto genovese is a raw sauce from Genoa, in Liguria, made by pounding basil, garlic, pine nuts, hard cheese and coarse salt together with olive oil. It is not cooked: the paste is loosened with oil and tossed through freshly cooked pasta.
It is one of the best-known Italian sauces outside Italy, but its story is a very local one. Here is where the name comes from, what goes into the classic recipe and how it is made by hand.
What the name means
"Pesto" comes from the Genoese verb pestâ (in Italian, pestare), which means to pound or crush. That describes the traditional method exactly. The ingredients are worked in a marble mortar with a wooden pestle, and the English word "pestle" shares the same Latin root.
Older ancestors
Pounded sauces of garlic, cheese and herbs are far older than pesto itself. The Romans made moretum, a paste of garlic, salt, cheese, herbs, olive oil and vinegar, sometimes with pine nuts. Its preparation is described in a Latin poem from the collection known as the Appendix Vergiliana.
In medieval Genoa there was agliata, a sauce of garlic and walnuts. Both are often treated as forerunners of the sauce we know today, though neither had basil at its centre.
When basil arrived
Basil, now the heart of the recipe, is first documented in pesto from the 1850s. Emanuele Rossi published a Genoese cookbook in 1852, and Giovanni Battista Ratto's La Cuciniera Genovese followed in the 1860s. Sources give its date as either 1863 or 1865.
Ratto's recipe is recognisably pesto: garlic, basil, grated cheese, pine nuts and oil. It even allows marjoram and parsley when basil cannot be found. One detail surprises modern cooks. He asked for grated Dutch cheese and Parmigiano, where a modern recipe would use pecorino.
The classic ingredients
Today the traditional list is short, and several items have a preferred origin:
- Basil. Genovese basil, which has protected (DOP) status. Purists prefer basil from Pra', a district of Genoa where it has been grown for a very long time.
- Garlic. Garlic from Vessalico, in the province of Imperia, is often recommended.
- Pine nuts. Pounded with the garlic at the start.
- Cheese. Parmigiano Reggiano or Grana Padano, together with a sheep's cheese such as pecorino sardo or pecorino romano.
- Olive oil. Ligurian extra virgin olive oil, ideally from the Riviera Ligure.
- Coarse salt. Added to the mortar with the basil.
There is no cream and no tomato in the classic Genoese recipe.
How it is made by hand
The order matters. The garlic and pine nuts are pounded to a cream first. Then the washed basil goes in with the coarse salt and is crushed into the paste. The grated cheese follows, and a little olive oil is worked in at the end to bring it all together.
Italy's official tourism site still calls the marble mortar and wooden pestle essential. Genoa takes the craft seriously enough to host a World Pesto Championship, held every two years since 2007.
What it goes with
Ratto's own book says pesto dresses lasagne and trofie, the short twisted Ligurian pasta. Long, flat trenette is the other classic partner. Pesto is also stirred through potato gnocchi, and a well-known Ligurian variation adds boiled potatoes and green beans to the dish.
At Bigoli
Our Pesto is our own take rather than the Genoese recipe. It is basil pesto with roasted pine nuts, sun-dried tomato and a little cream. The sun-dried tomato is there on purpose, because it gives the basil something sharp to push against. If you want the strictly Ligurian version, this is not it, and we would rather say so.
As with every sauce on our counter, you can have it on any of our six shapes: penne, rigatoni, spaghetti, fusilli, bigoli or fettuccine. The pasta is extruded on site every morning and cooked to order, so it is ready in minutes. Every pasta dish except Dello Chef can be made with our gluten-free penne. Some add-ons, such as meatballs, contain gluten. Not a gluten-free kitchen.
Our Mozzarella Pesto is seasonal greens with mozzarella, basil pesto and olive oil, made up when you order it.
Our Pesto is made with pine nuts. Whatever you order, please tell us about any allergy first.
Frequently asked questions
What does "pesto" mean?
It comes from the Genoese verb pestâ, to pound or crush, after the mortar and pestle used to make it.
What is in traditional pesto genovese?
Genovese basil, garlic, pine nuts, Parmigiano Reggiano or Grana Padano, pecorino, Ligurian extra virgin olive oil and coarse salt.
Which pasta goes with pesto genovese?
In Liguria it is classically served with trofie or trenette, and also with gnocchi. At Bigoli you can choose any of our six fresh shapes.
Is there cream in pesto genovese?
Not in the traditional recipe. Our own Pesto at Bigoli adds a little cream and sun-dried tomato, which is why we call it our take on the sauce.