Two dishes are thought to have existed before pesto in antiquity, dating back to the Roman era. Similar paste known as moretum, which was used by the ancient Romans, was formed by combining crushed garlic, salt, cheese, herbs, olive oil, and vinegar (and occasionally pine nuts). The Appendix Vergiliana, a prehistoric collection of poetry in which the author describes the creation of moretum, mentions the use of this paste in Roman cuisine. Agliata, a mixture of garlic and walnuts, was a common sauce in Genoan cooking throughout the Middle Ages because garlic was an essential part of the Ligurians’ diet, particularly for seamen.
In the middle of the 19th century, when gastronomist Giovanni Battista Ratto wrote his book La Cuciniera Genovese in 1863, basil, the primary component of modern pesto, was first recorded.
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