The Food of GENOVA (but no pesto allowed)

The city of Genoa (excuse me, GENOVA) has been on my Italian travel bucket list for many years. Well, I finally made it and was all excited to pig out on the city’s most famous food: pesto!

That is until Eva reminded me that Genova has an incredible cuisine that goes way beyond basil, and I accepted her challenge to go a day in Genova without eating pesto…

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If (like me) you can’t help yourself and thinking about Genova makes you want pesto, check out Eva’s Pesto alla Genovese recipe here: https://www.pastagrammar.com/post/classic-italian-pesto-alla-genovese-a-homemade-recipe-for-the-best-basil-pesto

Also, if you want to try Salsa di Noci, here’s a recipe (I’ll try to bug Eva for a pansoti recipe soon!): https://www.pastagrammar.com/post/salsa-di-noci-italian-walnut-pesto-recipe

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[Music] okay so I want to show you guys where we are but first I got to go up [Music] we are in genua Genoa janova going to have to get used to that today this is my first time here I’ve been looking forward to coming to the city for a very long time years for one thing and one thing only pesto I love pesto to death I could eat it for breakfast lunch and dinner every single day and now finally I’m here in the city of pesto but it’s also that just P to all fa well yeah I’m sure but like come on it’s all pesto here it’s not just pesto they have a lot of amazing food uh does this mean we have to okay so if I can’t have pesto for breakfast what what are we going to have so we’re going to have the traditional breakfast from J that involves a food that is well well known in all the world and we are going to eat it as they eat here in general we arrived at the Bon Mario that is one of the oldest bif in Genova where they prepare the traditional fataa from J when you think of f you think for sure about fuka gener which is this very simple fuka bread with holes inside and they then they brush with what we call a salamoia made with water olive oil and salt so outside is a little bit salty but inside is soft and now they eat the fuka the fuka for breakfast dipping in the capucin he [Music] 10,000 time I’m bet [Music] you are totally right that is so much better than a cornet oh my gosh the sweet cappuccino and the salty Pacha I remember now you told me about this we made a video a while back where Ava made fuka Al genov and she told me about this and I just totally forgot about it and now I am beating myself up because I could have been eating this for breakfast for a long [Music] time it’s incredible how he forgotten the very well together [Music] breakfast of the Champions it might not be pesto but I’m very happy with this breakfast maybe the best breakfast I’ve ever had I told you I’m not even joking that really might be the best breakfast I’ve ever had what this is the House of gofredo M and who is that you don’t know who is goo M no is the person who wrote the national song of Italy the national [Music] anthem see go it was from J [Music] one thing that has immediately struck me and surprised me is how incredibly beautiful this city is the architecture is just amazing I didn’t really expect that I expected pest though in all the city in Italy where I have been and I have been in most of the Italian cities I’m sure that here in Gena you find the most beautiful palace much more than ROM I know it’s unbelievable but it’s real like look at the Fresco on this [Music] building it is slightly torture not having pesto here because you just see it everywhere everything is pesto pesto pesto [Music] are you sure you don’t want to go get some pesto yes I’m sure because we are going to get something that is traditional from General it’s good it’s made fresh it’s warm it’s vegan it’s vegetarian it’s something that make him eaten like a snack and uh doesn’t involve p [Music] that is [Music] huge that was so cool they had these massive wood ovens in there and just as we went in they had just taken the fata out so it is very hot and fresh and it’s big they have these insanely huge pans that they cook it in oh my gosh that is so good I am so glad we got there as this was coming out hot and fresh I don’t know how to describe it it’s like okay because it’s uh because it’s chickpea flour it kind of has this um like if you’ve ever had palenta that hardens a bit it gets this kind of I don’t want to say rubbery cuz that makes it sound better bad but kind of this rubbery texture but on the other side it has just become so crispy and fried and delicious it’s not technically fried they cooked in an oven but it’s like it was fried but with a lot of ol oil I’m saying oh my God isn’t that incred inredible I knew it was good I remember it was good but I didn’t remember how good it was it reminds me a lot of um Sicilian panell you know the fried chickpea flour palenta stuff you can’t forget the very tight relationship that there is between C and Gena because Gena helped C to be independent and they have this very very strict relationship think about p in your who thought P this is one of those moments where I don’t know if you put a the most amazing Pizza in front of me and this I don’t know which I would choose I don’t know you want to split that last piece no but will you no no see see I will I [Music] will I love chickf I love olive oil I love po I love pizza the fata here I love the wood oven the fata here is all is a summer of that so good so good what Happ you’re having your classic post amazing meal disappointing because he done postmeal depression see it’s a postmeal depression because it was so good that it last for so few second and now I still I already feel that I miss it and I ate like 30 second ago if you come to genua yes all the food over the world whatever you want but please try the fata okay that was a 10 out of 10 no 11 out of 10 snack but like for real what are we going to get for lunch Pest of some sort are we getting more fata cuz I’m okay with that my God but no [Music] okay so Ava took me to this place which is a very cool spot by the way specifically to have hensi with salsa din noi now salsa din noi is another kind of pesto but it’s made with like walnuts and it is an amazing sauce Ava has made it for me before but the reason she brought me here is because I’ve never actually had it with with pensotti which are the real pasta from Genoa that they use it with they’re kind of like little stuffed ravioli unfortunately we go in and sit down to order and find out that they’re out of pansotti so they had some other kind of little ravioli but in any case it was delicious it is such a good sauce it may not look as impressive as basil pesto which is so bright and green and Vivid but if you’ve had this before and you know what it tastes like you know how absolutely delicious this is so rich so creamy I still don’t know what it’s like with the right pasta but maybe someday I’ll find out or whatever this pasta is it’s very good and AA also got um stuffed ancho bees another classic here which honestly was maybe better than the salsa din noi what are they stuffed with they stuffed with cheese bread crumb mom black pepper cheese more [Music] cheese I know probably a lot of people are like I don’t like anchovies yes you do you just need to eat them like this also she couldn’t resist as we were leaving and got some more faty not I don’t blame you that’s some good stuff I need to compare to find out which is the best in J this is my new goal for this day is this one better no this is as good as the first one they’re just as good the problem is that it’s just too good it’s a funny vibe here too because in so many ways it has all of the great things of a southern Italian city like Naples for instance and I mean it’s like it has the sort of colorfulness of the South and just the aesthetic it feels very Southern but at the same time we’re super far in the north of Italy so it’s a it’s a strange uh uh dichotomy here but because it’s ultimately a northern city it’s a lot less how should I put it chaotic crazy people wait for the light to change across the street it’s very strange for me [Music] this is badas badas is a small neighborhood inside Genova where all the houses as you could see they are the old houses of the fishermen so they didn’t really change except for painting a little bit they’re so lucky that when it’s a nice day like today they can directly jump into the [Music] water yeah something I’m really starting to pick up on especially in a neighborhood like this is how much this city is built upon its relationship to the Sea Genoa was like a seaf fairing capital for so long I guess it still is I mean they still have this huge modern Port they built the best ships in the world they were some of the best explorers and through all this travel trade over the centuries they brought a bunch of food influences in and also sent their food in their own food influences elsewhere if you think about the relationship Ava mentioned between Sicily and Genoa now you can totally see it it’s like Traders from Genoa would go to Sicily teach Sicilians how to make pesto and then bring back things like penell so I think that must be part of why it has such an amazing food culture here because there are just so many culinary influences [Music] here we are at M which means it’s the biggest Market in general as you can see around you there are all the kinds of product that you can imagine vegetables fish meat bread and pasta is like a kingdom of the good [Music] food this is the that is like substitute of P here in general maybe it’s a little bit easier to make but it tastes delicious of the they’re very famous for their olive oil here right so they must be famous for their olives also for the this [Music] one well I’ve almost made it a whole day in Genoa without even touching pesto we’re not done yet still got to get dinner you sure you’re not in the mood for some noi with pesto or tropia with pesto or lingu with pesto or with pesto p with pesto Las with pesto [Music] no so basically the plan for dinner is to do something that uh I love doing in cities that I’m new to AA will find some like AIA or tra some little out of thee way place that like isn’t in the middle of the touristic Zone but some place that she knows is good and then she doesn’t look at the menu I certainly don’t know what’s on the menu but we see what they’ve got I’m going to order some mus which means stuffed muscle muscles they are stuffed with bread crumb cheese obviously there is the muscle mam thyme olive oil it’s just an explosion of flavor oh look at that look at that that’s mine no this is all mine this is mine oh very Punchy powerful Savory flavor but also extremely delicate at the same time really hard to describe how good that is and then I’m going with sta is my favorite food all the time there are few places in Italy where this food is a real estate one is col maybe the number one then there is also gen and I want to try how they do here in gen but I bet that is delicious Stu fish for people doesn’t know what is is this dried fish cod fish from Norway they do over there they fish over there they drive over there but then they send most of them here in Italy the way which is cooked is very close to what we call in calabri with tomatoes potatoes onion olives the difference is that here is more of shed while in the south of Italy we like to see our piece of stock home but the taste is very veryy veryy and then for you arper I’m going to order rabbit rabbit lioran [Music] style it’s so funny it kind of tastes like Po ala cachur except with rabbit of course which is from Tuscany which is the neighboring region but also with the pine nuts and and there’s some Sweetness in there I can’t quite tell if there’s raisins or something but there’s some kind of Sweetness in there it also tastes Sicilian so you’re having like a dish that’s really classic in Calabria and I’m having a dish that has definitely some influences on or from Tuscany and Sicily and this is all just like the big Melting Pot of Genoa I guess that is so good oh my gosh oh my gosh okay AA thank you for once again ordering me an absolutely magnificent dish that I never ever would have ordered on my own never would have even thought oh come to Genoa try the rabbit honestly I thought that this day would be really hard to get through without having pesto here and I really thought that by the end of the day I was still going to really want pesto but I have to say I had such an amazing day of eating I’m good I’m I’m good I can go to bed very satisfied without pesto without pesto that being said tomorrow is another day and we’re still in genua Gena [Music] I really thought that okay because this city is enormously overshadowed as a tourist destination by Rome and Florence and Venice and so I just kind of assumed in the back of my mind coming here that there would be some reason for that maybe it wouldn’t be as beautiful maybe it wouldn’t be as interesting no there’s no re there’s no reason for that this place is amazing they have an incredible food culture maybe one of the most unique in Italy that I’ve ever experienced it is astoundingly beautiful here it is so beautiful the Historical Center is huge and it is some of the most amazing architecture I’ve ever seen in all of Italy I don’t understand when more people don’t come to Genova it’s amazing come here this is come no no yeah that’s right don’t come keep going to come it’s very bad don’t don’t don’t come it’s awful don’t come thank you guys so much for watching we hope you enjoyed our day in Gena as much as we did if you enjoyed the video please be sure to give it a thumbs up hit that subscribe button if you haven’t already and we’ll see you next time ciao look at that inside