Ranise: Ligurian Pesto from the Olive Hills Above Imperia

Ranise is based in Chiusanico, a village in the hills behind Imperia on the western Ligurian coast. The company began as an olive oil business and still describes its work as the production and packing of PDO olive oil and local specialties. It says it is identified with Ligurian pesto made from Basilico Genovese DOP, along with other typically Ligurian products. Set beside the recipe the Genoese pesto consortium publishes, that jar's ingredient list shows where the two agree and where they differ. The Does Pesto Go Bad? storage guide covers what happens once a jar is open.

Who they are

Ranise's story, as the company tells it, begins in 1995 in Dolcedo, a village in the valley behind Imperia, with what it calls a desire to recover and cultivate olive groves planted by its ancestors. The first premises were a small packing workshop. Production then moved down to Imperia to expand, and in 2013 the company settled at its current headquarters at Via Monte Pasubio 43 in Chiusanico, in the province of Imperia. Ranise says foreign markets are its core business. Its site lists other lines beside the Ranise name, among them Golfo del Vento, described as 100 percent Italian extra virgin olive oil alongside typical Ligurian specialties.

The basil

Basilico Genovese is a protected designation of origin. The consortium that protects it dates its recognition by the Italian Ministry of Agriculture to 2008. The zone is the seaward side of Liguria, south of the watershed of the mountains that run behind the coast. The consortium puts the area under DOP basil at about 100 hectares, less than 15 percent of the land under conventional basil in Italy.

DOP basil may be grown in protected structures year round or in open fields in the warm season, but only in natural soil. Basil sold fresh is pulled by hand, roots and all, and bunched as whole plants with two to four pairs of leaves. For processing, only the apical part of the plant, the most tender and fragrant, is harvested. Ranise says its Ligurian pesto is "a PDO Genovese basil based sauce."

The mortar and the jar

The Consorzio del Pesto Genovese publishes a recipe with seven ingredients: small-leaved Basilico Genovese DOP, extra virgin olive oil, Parmigiano Reggiano DOP (or Grana Padano), pecorino DOP (Fiore Sardo), garlic, pine nuts and coarse salt, worked in a marble mortar with a wooden pestle. Ranise sells its main jar as Ligurian pesto, not Pesto Genovese, and the ingredient list published by its US importer shows how it differs from the consortium recipe.

Read line by line, the jar puts the DOP basil and the olive oil at the front of the list. It differs from the consortium recipe in its nuts, its cheeses and its last ingredient: cashews come first with pine nuts further down, Grana Padano DOP is joined by pecorino and whey, and the list ends with citric acid. The importer describes the pesto as raw and unpasteurized.

The garlic from Vessalico

Ranise also makes a Ligurian pesto with Vessalico garlic, and its product page describes the garlic's flavor as sweet and delicate. Vessalico garlic is grown only in the eleven communes of the upper Arroscia valley, in the province of Imperia. The growers braid the bulbs into reste of 13 or 25 heads, in the morning or evening when the damp leaves are easier to work, and sell them at a fair held every 2 July. The local union of communes describes the garlic as intensely aromatic but delicate on the palate and notes how well it keeps.

The Slow Food presidium for the garlic, founded in 2000, was the first in Liguria. The growers' cooperative, A Resta, states that it was suspended in July 2023 after more than 24 years of collaboration with Slow Food, and that the cooperative is involved in a committee promoting an IGP for the garlic.

The jars

The Ligurian basil pesto (shop Ranise Ligurian basil pesto) is the product the company says it is identified with. Ranise recommends it cold, stirred into trenette, gnocchi, trofie or croxetti. Trofie is one of the shapes Ranise names (shop Rustichella trofie). The Pasta Shapes guide explains why a twisted shape holds pesto. Since the pesto goes on cold, loosen it with a spoonful of the pasta water off the heat. The How to Cook Dried Pasta Properly guide explains how the starch in that water helps a sauce cling.

The red pesto (shop Ranise red pesto) combines sun-dried tomatoes with DOP basil, and Ranise suggests it for pasta or spread on bruschetta, canapés and toast. The sage pesto (shop Ranise sage pesto) is, by the ingredients on the shop's listing, 41 percent extra virgin olive oil and 40 percent sage, with milk protein, garlic and vinegar. Ranise calls it delicately aromatic and suggests it for summer dishes. The walnut pesto (shop Ranise walnut pesto) is a creamy Ligurian sauce that the shop's listing suggests for croxetti and trenette or as a filling for ravioli and cannelloni. The range also includes a sun-dried tomato bruschetta sauce (shop Ranise bruschetta sauce) and a sweet bell pepper spread (shop Ranise sweet bell pepper spread).

Olive oil sits near the top of both ingredient lists quoted here, so Olive Oil: The Complete Buying Guide and the DOP olive oil and finishing oil guide are the next reads.

The shop is at 263 Josephine Street in Cherry Creek, Denver.

Sources & Further Reading

• Ranise: brands, including Golfo del Vento
• Ranise: company history; Dolcedo 1995, Imperia, Chiusanico 2013
• Ranise: Ligurian pesto with PDO Genovese basil
• Ranise: Ligurian pesto with Vessalico garlic
• Ranise: red pesto
• Ranise: sage pesto
• Consorzio Basilico Genovese DOP: the DOP certification, zone and consortium
• Consorzio Basilico Genovese DOP: the production rules
• Mangiare in Liguria: the Pesto Genovese recipe, text supplied by the Consorzio del Pesto Genovese
• Unione dei Comuni dell'Alta Valle Arroscia: Vessalico garlic
• Cooperativa A Resta: the cooperative and the presidium
• Italian Harvest, US importer: Ranise Pesto Ligure ingredient list