Giusi said:Pennyaline said:Bullfinches! You said that the recipe and method at
http://www.mangiareinliguria.it/consorziopestogenovese/pestogenovesedop.php
is the ultimate authority on DOP Pesto Genovese, and then you tried to
change the page. FOUL! Your logic and actions were flawed, therefore
your argument is groundless.Incidentally, I've only seen one recipe for pesto that included
walnuts as a mandatory ingredient, so I'm sorta kinda on your side.I can't imagine why you care,
'Cuz... cuz *he* started it!
Quoted message said:because no matter how genuinely you tackle
the DOP recipe, you won't get Genovese pesto. The basil is different
there. Even with seeds from Genova you don't get exactly the same
thing. I doubted it, so a friend had her ex bring Genovese pesto,
Genovese basil and had me bring my basil grown from Genovese seeds. We
whipped up pesto from the two fresh basils and did a test of all three
pestos. She was right. It tastes different. It tastes great to me in
all versions, but only the two Genovese pestos tasted just exactly the
same.
The DOP recipe and indeed the whole DOP issue is, to my mind, a
guarantee that manufacture will stay where it is. Just as the method of
making champagne has been restricted by law to the Champagne region and
no other region my call its sparkling wine "champagne," the DOP Pesto
Genovese method seems to seek to insure that only pesto made in that
region may call be called Genovese and all others must be called
something else. It uses an interestingly closed-minded approach,
apparently assuming that by mandating ingredients the originate in the
limited region it may preserve the integrity of the product (granted,
the actual method of making pesto is hardly unique and hardly patentable
as was the Champagne method). Genovese basil experiment points out only
one of the intrinsic variability possible in items bearing the same
name. Your basil and your friend's ex's basil both made a delicious
product, but each was different although the ingredients had the right
pedigrees. Even basil springing from the same source may differ.
Cuttings propagated from a single plant will taste the same, but plants
grown from the seeds of that first plant may produce basil that is
different thanks to cross pollination. It's a natural variation.
"Champagnes" don't all taste alike and recipes are necessarily imprecise
because fruit and vines vary, but the method for champagne is always the
same and it is the Champagne method that is protected.
Quoted message said:It would take more than that to make me go to Liguria, but fortunately
there are many wonderful reasons to go there.Being practical, like most cooks in Umbria, if I have old pecorino I use
it, if I don't, I use all Parmigiano. It takes more than a missing
cheese to keep me from my pesto. I ate it last night.
Enough said.