Fred Plotkin is like that 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.
It s not. In the early days, pesto found its way into more dishes than kiwifruit. Instead of basil, we got spinach, arugula, mint, oregano, Italian parsley almost anything that was green and leafy. When chefs ran out of green, they tried red. But pine nuts became walnuts, almonds, pumpkin seeds, and pistachios.