Pesto where it is known as "pistou". In contrast with "pesto alla genovese", "pistou" is generally made with olive oil, basil and garlic only: while cheese may be added, usually no nuts are included in a traditional "pistou" because no pine trees grow there to provide the nuts. "Pistou" is used in the typical "soupe au pistou", a hearty vegetable soup with "pistou" flavour. The sauce did not originally contain basil, however; instead, cheese and olive oil were the main constituents. Sometimes almonds are used instead of pine nuts, and sometimes mint leaves are mixed in with the basil leaves. It
XO sauce XO sauce XO sauce is a spicy seafood sauce from Hong Kong. It is commonly used in southern Chinese regions like Guangdong province. Developed in the 1980s in Hong Kong for Cantonese cuisine, XO sauce is made of roughly chopped dried seafoods, including dried scallops ("conpoy"), fish, and shrimp, which are cooked with chili peppers, onions, and garlic. This dried seafood-based sauce resembles the Fujianese Shacha sauce. Spring Moon, the Chinese restaurant of the Peninsula Hong Kong hotel, is often credited with the invention of XO sauce, although others claim it came from Kowloon. The name "XO sauce" comes from