Pesto has been pointed out that pesto is essentially a combination of flavourful leaves, oily nuts, hard cheese, olive oil, garlic, salt and lemon juice; any ingredients meeting this description can produce a pesto-like condiment. "Pesto alla siciliana", sometimes called "pesto rosso" (red pesto), is a sauce from Sicily similar to "pesto alla genovese" but with the addition of tomato, almonds instead of pine nuts, and much less basil. "Pesto alla calabrese" is a sauce from Calabria consisting of (grilled) bell peppers, black pepper and more; these ingredients give it a distinctively spicy taste. Outside Italy, the household name "pesto" has
Pesto through a circular motion of a wooden pestle. This same Latin root, through Old French, also gave rise to the English noun "pestle". Strictly speaking, "pesto" is a generic term for anything that is made by pounding; that is why the word is used for several pestos in Italy. Nonetheless, "pesto alla genovese" ("Genoese pesto") remains the most popular pesto in Italy and the rest of the world. Pesto is thought to have two predecessors in ancient times, going back as far as the Roman age. The ancient Romans used to eat a similar paste called moretum, which was made