How does pesto alla Trapanese come into being? What are its characteristics? Which wine goes well with it?
This month we will answer these questions, taking you on a discovery of a typical dish from our region.
How is Trapanese pesto made?
Pesto alla Trapanese is one of the results of the contamination of different cultures that has enriched our island for centuries. Contamination of cultures that precisely in the province of Trapani, in the far west of Sicily, has had its greatest expression.
It was here that the Arabs first landed (in Mazara del Vallo), who for three centuries forged and enriched Sicily with their agricultural innovations.
It was precisely in Trapani that the Spanish landed, who dominated and influenced the region for over five centuries, as did the ‘Italians’, who initiated the process of national unification from Marsala.
Pesto alla Trapanese, in particular, is owed to the activity of the port of Trapani.
Genoa’s ships often stopped here on their crossings to the East.
Their merchants and sailors, because of the need to preserve food for a long time, brought with them the so-called ‘agliate liguri’: a sauce made from basil, garlic, oil, vinegar and pine nuts.
Later, Sicilian sailors readapted the Genoese recipe with the products at their disposal, in particular tomatoes and almonds, as well as red garlic.
Characteristics of Trapanese pesto
Pesto alla Trapanese is a pesto that is prepared raw; its ingredients do not need to be cooked.
It is a creamy sauce that on the one hand can be served as an appetiser on bruschetta, crostini or puff pastry snacks. On the other hand, it can be an excellent condiment for a first course, perhaps with a fresh pasta also typical of the area: busiate.
This is a pasta similar in some ways to fusilli, which is traditionally prepared by twisting the pasta onto a branch of buso, the stem of a plant of the Gramineae family. This type of pasta allows the pesto to adhere perfectly to their surface, creating an ideal combination of flavours.
Tip: serve the pasta also with a generous grating of salted ricotta or pecorino cheese.
What wine should we pair it with?
Pasta with Trapanese pesto has an intense and aromatic flavour in itself. In this case a pairing that can enhance the dish should be sought by concordance (we have talked about pairing rules here ).
The intense and savory flavor of the dish can be appreciated with a wine that is characterized by aromaticity, which balances the savory component of the dish, and also by a certain minerality.
All characteristics that lead to one of the most identifiable wines of Baglio DiAr: Selene, the 100% Grillo DOC Sicilia.
This wine is perhaps the most iconic of this portion of Sicily, and the most popular in our selection of organic wines; it is no coincidence that it has been awarded the highest quality standard, the DOC (Denominazione di Origine Controllata).
In order to have a DOC, in fact, the wine must submit to a stricter specification, limiting yields per hectare and grape yields in wine, just to name two. All this with the stubborn intention of expressing all the goodness of which this vine, born at the end of the 19th century from a cross between Catarratto and Zibibbo, is capable.
Our Grillo Selene, which in the years of Baglio Diar’s existence has already managed to rack up awards (silver Mundus Vini medal in 2024 and bronze Decanter medal, gold at the Concours Mundial de Bruxelles in 2023) is a semi-aromatic white wine that originates on the sandy soils overlooking the sea of Mazara del Vallo.
A wine that, with its aromas of tropical fruit and Mediterranean maquis, together with its fresh and savoury sip and its 13 degrees alcohol, is a perfect match for Trapanese pesto.