Us at a glance
We’re a food start-up, headed by self-confessed food geek, Michael Hawkins. It’s fair to say we’re slightly obsessed with pesto.
Disappointed with the quality and imagination of supermarket pesto, we decided to do something different.
We believe that every cuisine has an array of ingredients to make their own perfect pesto - so join us on a road trip exploring the world’s most exciting cuisines via the medium of the world’s greatest sauce.
Our approach
All our recipes start from the same basic premise: What would an Italian nonna do if she woke up in a strange country and set about making pesto?
We think she’d approach it in the way she’s always done… by gathering the freshest, most flavourful ingredients that grow in the countryside around her.
So, whilst we respectfully doff our cap to the format of traditional Italian pesto - oil, nuts, cheese, garlic, basil and salt - we think every cuisine is worthy of its own equivalent.
We adore basil pesto, but we don’t make it
Pesto alla Genovese - the basil pesto recipe we know so well - is undeniably one of the world’s most revered sauces.
We continue to make it for ourselves whenever we get a craving. Which is often. Heck, we’ve even performed in the Grand Final of the Genoa World Pesto Championships.
Despite that, there are so many companies making basil pesto that we don’t feel the need to cover old ground. Here’s a slightly more poetic explanation.
You could say we’re a lockdown company
As our dreams of a fortnight touring the Greek islands were dashed as 2020 started to reveal its cruelty, we took it upon ourselves to come up with a recipe that meant we could GO! there, even if only in spirit.
As food nerds who always have at least one foodie project on the go, we happened to be heavily into pasta making at the time.
So we set about creating a virtual passport that would allow us to evoke the smells and flavours of the Greece that we so longed to visit.
Only the finest ingredients make the final cut
Whilst you can buy a jar of pesto for 59p, it’s no surprise that those manufacturers are cutting corners big time. A recent Which? study identified bamboo fibres, potato flakes, sugar and even water added to some supermarket pestos. Ouch!
The reason our sauces are so premium is simply because we don’t skimp on ingredients. We couldn’t forgive ourselves for making a Spanish pesto without Manchego, but because this cheese has Protected Designation of Origin, it’s inevitably expensive.
More than just an accompaniment to pasta
We’ll never stop stirring lashings of pesto through big bowls of fusilli, but we strongly advocate using pesto in a much wider variety of settings.
Our pestos make great marinades, stuffings and toppings. You’ll also never again have to throw away pesto once you’ve read our guide to inspiring ways to use pesto.
There are some pretty radical ideas out there for new ways to use pesto. We draw the line at pesto ice-cream but hey, if that's your thing go for it; we're not the boss of you.
