Browse Techniques

The ancient Ligurian garlic sauce — a medieval condiment that predates pesto: raw or very lightly toasted garlic, walnut oil (or olive oil), vinegar, toasted breadcrumbs, and salt pounded together in a mortar to a rough paste. Used as a dipping sauce for boiled meats, grilled fish, and cooked vegetables. The agliata is a demonstration that Ligurian cuisine before the 16th century (when basil pesto emerged) had its own sophisticated condiment tradition rooted in medieval Arab-influenced saucing.

Borage — the mild, cucumber-scented herb with rough, slightly hairy leaves — is used as a cooking vegetable in Liguria more than anywhere else in Italy. It is the primary filling of Ligurian pansoti (the triangular herb ravioli) and is also simply blanched and then ripassata (sautéed) in olive oil with garlic and dissolved anchovies. The treatment is the same as Roman cicoria ripassata, but the borage has a more delicate character — less bitter, more mineral, slightly gelatinous when cooked.

The Ligurian frittura di paranza is a mixed fry of the smallest fish from the day's catch — anchovies, whitebait, small squid, gobies — coated in fine semolina (not flour) and fried in abundant olive oil. The Monterosso anchovies of the Cinque Terre, cured in salt for a year, are served separately, rinsed, filleted, and dressed only with best olive oil — no batter, no frying. The two preparations on one plate represent the dual tradition: the raw-salt-cured anchovy and the fresh-fried small fish.

The Genoese version of minestrone is defined by one final element: a large spoonful of freshly made pesto al mortaio stirred into each bowl at the table. The soup itself — borlotti beans, zucchini, green beans, potato, diced tomato, and small pasta or broken spaghetti — is secondary to this moment of addition, when the raw basil and garlic pesto contact the hot broth and release an explosion of aroma. The contrast of hot, slow-cooked soup and raw, bright pesto is the technique.

Pansoti ('pot-bellied') are the triangular stuffed pasta of Liguria, filled with preboggion — a traditional mixture of 14+ wild herbs and greens (borage, prescinseua curd, Swiss chard, pimpinella, wild fennel fronds) bound with egg and Parmigiano. Dressed with salsa di noci — a sauce of shelled walnuts, garlic, marjoram, prescinseua or ricotta, and olive oil pounded together — they are the Ligurian counterweight to pesto, showing that the same region has another great sauce that uses the same mortar-pounding technique.

Genoa's definitive stockfish preparation: rehydrated dried Norwegian cod braised slowly with potatoes, olives, pine nuts, tomatoes, dried mushrooms, and fragrant olive oil in a wide earthenware pan. The name 'accomodato' (accommodated) suggests the fish has been made comfortable — brought back to life through the patient 3-day rehydration and 1.5-hour braise. The Genoese were among the first Europeans to import stockfish from Norway, establishing a trade relationship that dates to the 15th century.

Trofie are the short, twisted pasta of the Ligurian Levante — specifically the Recco area. Made from only semolina, water, and salt, each piece is formed by rolling a small piece of dough at an angle on the board with the palm of the hand, creating a tight, irregular helical twist. The technique takes hours to master. The twist traps pesto and thin sauces inside the coil. In the classic preparation (trofie al pesto with green beans and potato), the pasta, beans, and potato are cooked together in the same pot.