Pistou melts in a hot liquid (like in the pistou soup, for instance), it does not melt into long strands. Pistou Pistou (Provençal: "pisto" or "pistou" , ), or pistou sauce, is a Provençal cold sauce made from cloves of garlic, fresh basil, and olive oil. It is somewhat similar to the Ligurian sauce pesto, although it lacks pine nuts. Some modern versions of the recipe include grated parmesan, pecorino or similar hard cheeses. In the Provençal dialect of Occitan, "pistou" means "pounded". The sauce is derived from the Genoese pesto, which is traditionally made of garlic, basil, pine nuts, grated
Pesto by crushing garlic, salt, cheese, herbs, olive oil and vinegar together. The use of this paste in the Roman cuisine is mentioned in the "Appendix Vergiliana", an ancient collection of poems where the author dwells on the details about the preparation of "moretum". During the Middle Ages, a popular sauce in the Genoan cuisine was "agliata", which was basically a mash of garlic and walnuts, as garlic was a staple in the nutrition of Ligurians, especially for the seafarers. The introduction of basil, the main ingredient of modern pesto, occurred in more recent times and is first documented only in