Pistou

[Claire]

Was talking to a friend who is visiting her mother (the friend is the daughter of a friend who is elderly and blind, the daughter lives in France and visits twice a year for a couple or three weeks). She always, and I do mean always, brings me delicacies from France, usually pate which she knows is one of my weaknesses.

For some reason she and the care-giver were discussing pistou. I always think of it in connection to pesto. I'm going to give them some frozen which I just made a couple of days ago. I think to turn it into the soup all they need is stock. I can look it up, but given that right now is the height of the basil season, anyone have a recipe for this soup they want to share?

[Alix]

Claire, what exactly are you giving them frozen? Pesto? I don't think there are any pine nuts in pistou. I'm going to check my cookbook for you. Madame Benoit will know!

[LPBeier]

You are correct, Alix, pistou does not have pine nuts in it - that is the basic difference between the two. If they are French, they will not probably like the pesto version. It is so easy to make from scratch as long as you have a good quantity of fresh basil!

[Claire]

This friend lives in France, but is all-American Midwestern gal. She will not be upset by getting pesto (I make mine with pistachio nuts)! I'm just wondering about the soup angle.

[CWS4322]

I did a search on the Internet. Laura Calder uses pesto in hers...

[Margi Cintrano]

Buonasera,

The following recipe for Pistou is one of many classic dishes of Provençe:

www.ezinearticles.com

Please note: Pistou is made in 2 parts, a thick vegetable concasse and a soup part. The main ingredients are: courgette or zucchini, haricot white beans ( Northern white beans or Navy white beans can be good sub ) and several other vegetables and Gruyère or French Cheese.

Pesto al Genovese di Liguria: This traditional thick sauce is made of: Extra virgin olive oil, fresh Genovese basil, pinenuts and garlic ...

There is little similarity between these two classic traditional dishes.

Kind regards.
Margaux Cintrano.

[LPBeier]

Hi Margie,
I tried your link and it took me to a general page - I tried searching for the recipe and got 0 results.

I find this interesting (in a positive way). At culinary school I was taught in the classic French way and had a Parisian Chef Instructor. He taught us that the only difference between Pistou and Pesto is that Pesto has pine nuts and Pistou has more garlic.

I did a little checking and have found references to both the Pistou you mention than the way I was taught.

I would love to try the one you have given!

[LPBeier]

Okay, I just did some more research and came up with this:

Pistou - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This mentions both Pistou and Soupe au Pistou.

[Margi Cintrano]

Buonasera Laurie,

I had put in Google.com: Traditional Provençe Pistou Recipe

www.ezinearticles.com ( this came up )

There was another which came up too: www.frenchprovincialdishes.com

Thanks for the note too, and have a lovely evening.

Sempre, Ciao.
Margaux

[Alix]

Neither of those links works for me Margi.