The difference between Pistou and Pesto

At the moment my wife, Susan, is translating the menu for Pat and Marie at the Kitzbühel Restaurant in Chantemerle, Serre Chevalier 1350. It’s a lovely handwritten, very french menu, but sometimes english people find the menu a bit hard to understand, so she is providing a translation, to help them. In doing so Pistou kept cropping up, which we have always assumed to be like Pesto. It is, but slightly different…. Pesto is a very commonly known and commercially produced basil/olive oil/garlic condiment used in Italian cuisine. Pistou, it’s lesser known cousin, is a basil/olive oil/garlic condiment used in French cuisine. The main difference is the pine nuts - which are used in the Italian version and not in the French. The traditional French version of pistou is made only with garlic, basil, olive oil and salt. It is now common to see it made with Parmesan or other cheeses and sometimes with a tomato thrown in for extra flavoring.

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