Pesto in the mortar and fugassa
Genoa and Liguria have given the world two great symbols of Italian cuisine. The first is pesto alla genovese, a raw sauce of extraordinary fragrance, made with Genovese basil, a PDO variety with small, tender, sweet leaves, grown especially in the greenhouses of Pra', on the western outskirts of Genoa, together with pine nuts, garlic, Parmigiano Reggiano and Pecorino cheese, coarse salt and extra virgin olive oil of the Ligurian Riviera. Tradition requires that it be made in a marble mortar with a wooden pestle, crushing the basil leaves with a circular movement, rather than with a blender, which heats and darkens the leaves. Every two years, Genoa hosts the World Pesto Championship, in which competitors from all over the world challenge each other with mortar and pestle. Pesto is served with trofie, small twisted pasta, or with trenette, together with boiled potatoes and green beans, on lasagne, or in minestrone.
The second is focaccia, "fugassa" in Genoese dialect: a soft, low bread, golden and crunchy on the surface, with the characteristic dimples made with the fingers before baking, filled with olive oil, water and coarse salt. The Genoese eat it at any time, even at breakfast, dipped in cappuccino or caffellatte. A very different speciality is the Focaccia di Recco col formaggio, a PGI product of the town of Recco, on the Riviera di Levante: two very thin sheets of unleavened dough filled with fresh crescenza cheese, baked in a very hot oven until the cheese melts.
Tip: take a pesto-making class in Genoa; buy focaccia hot from the bakery in the morning, and try Recco's focaccia in Recco itself.
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