What Was Frank Sinatra's Pesto?

Frank Sinatra's Pesto Sauce was released on his 75th birthday to celebrate his love of pesto, pasta, and everything Italian. We never got to try it, but judging by its colour, we haven't missed much.

Sinatra's love of Italian food is almost as legendary as his voice, and some say he was more responsible for introducing Americans to Italian cuisine than anyone before him. A chance encounter with Luciano Belloni, the owner of a Genovese restaurant called Zeffirino, at a 1967 boxing match led to a friendship that would last decades. Belloni admired the singer so much that he created a dish called Paffutelli alla Frank, which was dedicated to the singer and is still on their menu today.

Sinatra was such a fan of Zeffirino that there are tales of him chartering a private helicopter from Montecarlo to Genoa to dine on his favourite dish, silk handkerchief pasta with pesto. He even had his favourite pesto regularly couriered to his Malibu mansion in a show of extravagance that hasn't exactly aged well.

Sinatra attempted to bottle his beloved pesto in a short-lived business venture featuring his name and face. In addition to pesto, the product range included alfredo sauce (which these days is considered an Italian-American abomination) and the revolting-sounding "scampi sauce".

The jar featured instructions to "simply heat and serve," which is slightly absurd because anyone familiar with pesto knows you never heat pesto in anything other than the residual heat of your pasta. The almost-heretic instruction would not have cut the mustard with Sinatra's mother either, as she was born in pesto's spiritual homeland of Liguria, where the world's best basil is grown.

We've been unable to track down the ingredients of Sinatra's pesto, but judging by the colour, it looks as authentic as Heinz's carbonara in a can.