What Is Purple Basil Pesto?

Purple pesto is a traditional pesto with the usual green basil switched to a purple variety. The result is a sauce with a unique taste and visual appearance.

In 2017, the restaurant chain ASK allowed diners to try a pesto made with a unique purple variety of basil. The sauce had a "punchy flavour" and a "more striking look" than the traditional green pesto we all know and love.

A few other words cropped up in the PR blurb, which always rings alarm bells. The sauce was described as "gutsy" and "robust," which is usually just a polite way of saying "divisive" or "disgusting." Indeed, not everyone was a fan of the sauce, with many turned off by the pesto's strong notes of ginger, cloves, and liquorice. That helps explain why the sauce disappeared from menus almost as quickly as it arrived.

The exact variety of basil used was Ocimum basilicum var. purpurascens, which ASK sourced from a small producer in Italy's Veneto region. As part of the PR stunt, any customer who ordered it from the menu was sent home with a packet of purple basil seeds to grow at home.

If you want to see what all the fuss was about, you may need to get hold of some of those seeds, as the chances are you'll struggle to buy purple basil plants here in the UK. For best results, simply follow our ultimate basil pesto instructions and switch the sweet basil for the purple variety.