QandAs: Food

What is Pesto?

Answer:
Pesto is a condiment type sauce made from crushed

basil, garlic, salt, pine nuts, and olive oil. Traditional pesto was first created in northern regions of Italy.

Pesto sauce's distinctive taste and palate comes mostly from the crushed basil herb and garlic used in its preparation.

In earlier times, pesto was made by crushing and blending the basil, garlic, salt, pine nuts and olive oil using a mortar and pestle (such as apothecaries used; and thus the term 'pesto', loosely related to 'pestle').

Pesto is commonly used as an overall seasoning condiment with a variety of foods, including pizza, sandwiches, salads, fish, meats, vegetables; and just about anything the typical condiment connoisseur decides to use it on!

Pesto has a relatively pungent flavor, due to the strong basil/garlic combination. In addition, since most pesto is made with olive oil, it often carries that distinctive flavor through to the taste buds, too.

Over the years, pesto concoctions have broadened to include a variety of other ingredients beyond the traditional ones. Some pesto officianados might create their pesto using only basil, garlic, and olive oil; others might add mint leaves, or might substitute almonds for the pine nuts; and still others might choose to use a variety of cheeses or other aromatic herbs and spices.

Pesto can be used to enhance the overall experience of savoring a variety of foods. Varying the ingredients can tweak the flavor, but keeping to the traditional fundamentals ensures that familiar pesto taste so many of us have come to love.

In this way, pesto is pretty much whatever one wishes it to be; providing it has at least most of the prime ingredients of basil, garlic, salt, pine nuts and olive oil.