Getting to the root of this flavorful Italian sauce By Sam Gugino Veal Vincenzo was a popular dish on the menu of a restaurant I operated in Philadelphia a number of years ago. Fred Plotkin feels that way about pesto, the sauce of basil, garlic, olive oil, pine nuts and cheese, from Italy's Liguria region.
People think they can mash up anything and call it pesto.
In the early days, pesto found its way into more dishes than did kiwifruit. When chefs ran out of green, they tried red. But through the course of time, pine nuts became walnuts, almonds, pumpkin seeds and pistachios. Soon pesto lost all pretense of having any connection to the original. This is not to say the classic Ligurian pesto can only be made one way.