Pistou vs. Pesto: What’s the Difference?
Don't confuse these vibrant green sauces.
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By Alice K. Thompson for Food Network Kitchen
Alice is a contributing writer and editor at Food Network.
Their names sound similar, and they’re both basil-based. It turns out there’s just one ingredient, pine nuts, that sets pistou and pesto apart.
Pistou vs. Pesto
Although the basil-based sauces pistou and pesto share many of the same ingredients, they’re not identical and hail from two distinct areas of the Mediterranean. The Latin verb “pestare,” meaning to crush or pound, is responsible for their similar names: Both were traditionally made by pounding the ingredients together in a mortar and pestle. Read on for exactly what distinguishes these sauces.
What Is Pistou?
Pistou is an uncooked sauce that comes from France’s Provence region and typically contains basil, garlic and olive oil. Modern versions often add cheese, generally a hard cheese like Parmesan, and less commonly add diced tomato. Unlike its Italian cousin pesto, pistou does not include pine nuts or other nuts. A traditional pistou is made by combining the ingredients together in a mortar and pestle, although a food processor is now the default for many cooks.
What Is Pistou Sauce Used For?
Pistou is most famously used as a dollop on the Provencal vegetable soup known as soupe au pistou. But it’s also served as a dipping sauce or as a condiment, especially alongside France’s famous Mediterranean seafood.
What Is Pesto?
Pesto is an Italian sauce that traces its roots back to the Mediterranean port of Genoa. It’s traditionally made with basil, garlic, pine nuts, olive oil and Parmesan or pecorino cheese, although modern interpretations often add other herbs and use walnuts or other nuts in place of pine nuts. While the ingredients are most authentically pounded together in a mortar and pestle, a food processor is often the modern-day go-to.
What Is Pesto Sauce Used For?
Tossing hot cooked pasta with pesto sauce is by far its most popular and traditional use. Pesto is also a classic topping for soups like Italian minestrone. But today you’ll find pesto used world-wide as a condiment or sauce in almost endless dishes, Italian or not: As a spread on bread or in sandwiches, as a drizzle over pizza or vegetables, as a base for salad dressings or as a sauce dolloped on everything from chicken to steak to eggs.
Pistou and Pesto Recipes
This hearty version of Provence’s famous vegetable soup calls for a pistou made with the addition of fresh tomatoes. You can also try this Autumn Soup with Pistou for a more classic version of pistou.
This traditional pesto can be ready in just about 5 minutes. It’s a great recipe to double or triple if you’re looking to use up a basil harvest and freeze the extras.
This simple five-ingredient pesto is an excellent (and economical) twist on the classic. You can use it on everything from spaghetti to angel hair to gnocchi.
Armando Rafael
You can use homemade or store-bought pesto in these sandwiches that pack all the flavors of a caprese salad: mozzarella, tomato and basil.
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