Pesto (Italian pron. /'pesto/, genoese pron. /'pestu/, contracted past participle of pestâ: "to pound, to crush," in reference to the crushed herbs and garlic in it, from Latin root of pestle) is a sauce that originates in the city of Genoa in the Liguria region of northern Italy (pesto alla genovese).At least one other well-known variant exists, the pesto alla siciliana, a sauce from Sicily similar to the basic Genoese pesto recipe with the addition of tomato and much less basil.

Sausage is delicious and versatile! There are many things one can do with sausage as a main dish, or as a compliment to another featured item in a main course meal. Hot or sweet sausage goes great with pasta in a meat sauce, breakfast sausage is awesome with eggs or pancakes, and chorizo is fantastic with pasta and pesto.

A sauce for pasta or meat, can be used as an ingredient in a variety of dishes. The classic use is to spread the pesto onto slices of bread which are then toasted. The ingredients are: basil, garlic, salt, pine nuts, olive oil, and parmesan cheese (Parmigiano Reggiano). [Leave the cheese out to make it vegan, also, you can substitute walnuts.]

Lovers of pesto, the tangy green pasta sauce, are bracing for increased prices or even shortages after unseasonable hailstorms in northern Italy destroyed much of the most prized variety of basil, the key ingredient in the Genoese specialty.