We ordered two courses, a Ligurian pesto pasta followed by a local swordfish dish. With our dinner came, of course, a basket of bread and a carafe of wine. The bread was delicious and had a distinctly different additive from the Tuscan version: salt. Oddly enough, Tuscans often will not salt their bread for the reason that it is to be used to clean sauce from plates or just enjoy as a palate cleanser. The Ligurians use bread for the same purposes but for some reason found that adding salt to their mix created better bread. I, for one, agree completely. The salt gives the bread life of its own and doesn’t just leave such a beautiful invention to fall down to the level of sponge but instead raise it up to the heights of side-dish. Well, you get my point.
Bread aside, the wine in Liguria is spectacular. Personally not normally a fan of white wine, I was not particularly excited for the specialty of Liguria. I was more than pleasantly surprised. A simple house wine, a wine that they do not serve out of bottles but instead transfer in large metal barrels for serving in mass, was spectacular. Most cheap white wine that can be easily acquired in the United States has what I would describe as a sort of acrid after taste, or finish. Not necessarily of alcohol like one would describe after taking a shot of vodka, but more in the sense that it is not very well processed and that the taste suffers as such. The Ligurian wine, however, was light and fresh. It left very little on the palate upon its finish but went down wonderfully fragrant and fruity. It was sweet, but not in the sense of candy. It was more like biting into a fresh fruit and tasting the natural sugar; not overwhelming but definitely a front-running flavor.
The pasta arrived first and in a fashion that is purely Ligurian. Made only with flour and water, the little short pastas were twisted tightly once in the middle, in a way that appeared to be by hand since no individual pasta seemed to identical to another. Like all of the pasta in this country it was cooked to a perfect al dente, something that Americans as a whole need much more practice at. No one likes a mushy pasta. What is interesting about the Ligurian pesto and what differs from, say, Tuscan or Roman pesto is that traditionally the pesto pasta in Liguria is served with slices of potato. This is not only foreign to Americans who would never serve a starch with a starch, but also odd to other Italian regions. But in Liguria, it is the way it has always been done and has been taught traditionally from generation to generation for centuries. The pesto, which was made with basil and pine nut, was a relatively thin sauce by American standards. It is likely that there was not as much cheese used as a thickener which allowed the olive oil and basil to play center-stage. As a whole, the individual delicious parts combined to form a deliciously addicting pasta which all of us had to have a second helping of. In comparison with the other pasta that I have had on this trip I will probably miss Ligurian pesto near the most."
Like what you read? Want to read about the swordfish? You will have to wait for the final release of my book "A Study Abroad- Italy" in order to get the whole story. Oh well, a little anticipation never hurt anyone.
Until next time,
~HS
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