What is Pistou?
There are numerous pistou recipes, but the simplest is a French version of traditional basil pesto without the cheese and pine nuts. Some versions incorporate breadcrumbs to bulk the sauce and make it more affordable, while others allow the addition of cheese. You'll almost always find that pistou contains substantially more garlic than pesto, which provides a robust garlicky kick that can overwhelm newcomers to the sauce.
The similarities (and differences) between pistou and pesto
Pesto Genovese, the classic Italian sauce we all know and love, contains just seven ingredients: basil, olive oil, pine nuts, garlic, salt, pecorino, and Parmigiano Reggiano.
Pistou shares certain similarities, but the oldest recipes are dramatically simplified and call for nothing more than basil, oil, garlic, and salt. These days, you will often find the inclusion of Parmesan (or occasionally a more quintessentially French cheese like Gruyère). Some brave cooks even dare to include controversial ingredients such as parsley, tomatoes, lemon juice, and pepper.
Can you handle pistou's garlicky kick?
Being the garlic wimps that we are, we can't handle the number of raw garlic cloves recommended by chefs such as Raymond Blanc. Rather than cut back on the amount of garlic, though, our compromise is to roast the garlic first. You still get a generous, garlicky smack around the chops, but it won't have the same spicy, lingering characteristics as its raw counterpart. If you've been too heavy-handed, there are some ways to fix garlicky pesto. They are far from perfect, but they should at least save your pistou from the bin.
A potted history of pistou vs. pesto
Translating as "pounded," pistou originated in Provence, where chefs use it in the wonderfully rustic Provençal dish, soupe au pistou. This minestrone-style soup, commonly made with beans, onions, tomatoes, carrots, and vermicelli, is famously finished with a generous dollop of herby pistou before serving.
In exactly the same way that the Sicilians tweaked the traditional basil pesto recipe to incorporate their beloved tomatoes, different regions of France have developed their preferences for what cheese to use in their pistou. We applaud the Niçoise for using the wonderfully nutty Gruyère, while in Marseille, you may find chefs using the semi-soft cheese from Lille, Mimolette.
Raymond Blanc's pistou recipe
| Ingredient | Quantity |
| Olive oil | 100g |
| Basil | 30g |
| Garlic | 20g |
| Salt | pinch |
| Pepper | pinch |