What Is Pesto?

Pesto is always a crowd-pleaser, no matter the venue. It can be served on simple items like sandwiches or on something more complex like a pasta. You can eat it hot or cold. You can leave it on its own as the whole sauce or you can spice it up with extra cheese or nuts or other items.

But what are the origins of pesto and what is the proper recipe for making the classic sauce? We turned to chef Jonathan Benno of Lincoln Ristorante to find out! In the video above he explains where pesto actually comes from and he details his full recipe, along with some handy chef tricks, in order to help the home cooks out.

Watch chef Benno in our video to learn everything you need to know about pesto. Or, if you want to try it from the pros, you can head to Lincoln Ristorante, which is currently celebrating all things Liguria, the home of pesto. You can sample dishes from across the Italian region, but most notably their gnocchi al pesto genovese, which is seen in the video above!