MÖVENPICK HOTEL BEIRUT LAUNCHES ‘PESTO AND PISTOU’ MENU
Movenpick Hotel Beirut launched its latest global ‘Pesto and Pistou’ menu, allowing guests to savour the tastes and flavours of the Mediterranean this autumn
The expert chefs at Mövenpick have perfected a new innovative range of pestos (Italian) and pistous (French) to create seven experimental dishes, available at Hemingway’s Lounge throughout October 2019.
Chef Ghazi El Sheikh , who heads the culinary team at Movenpick Hotel Beirut will lead the kitchen in preparing the pesto and pistou based dishes. These two classic European sauces are both based on the aromatic herb, basil, which is harvested in late summer. Savoury favourites will include seared Ahi tuna with olive and eggplant pesto and seafood soup with tarragon pistou. For dessert, a sweet treat with a real difference – Bundt cake with chocolate-mint pesto, served alongside a frothy Mövenpick Espresso.
Pesto and pistou are two versions of a flavourful sauce based on basil, olive oil and cheese. Italian pesto, which originates in Genoa, the capital city of Liguria, Italy, is blended from garlic, basil, pine nuts, grated pecorino cheese (or sometimes parmesan) and olive oil while its French cousin, pistou, is a Provençal cold sauce with similar ingredients, but without the pine nuts and with or without cheese.
Mövenpick’s versions add new surprising ingredients to the blend, while preserving the essence of both Mediterranean specialty sauces to create seven pesto/pistou-inspired dishes:
- Ahi tuna with olive and eggplant pesto: pan-seared yellowfin tuna fillet with a modern interpretation of ratatouille, pine nuts and black tapenade;
- seafood soup with tarragon pistou: a touch of tarragon and a unique blend of sweet aniseed and mild vanilla bring this specialty seafood dish to life;
- tagliolini with walnut-basil pesto: walnuts replace pine nuts to create an imitable new pesto blend that is smooth, sweet and deliciously buttery;
- black cod with pesto rosso: accompanied with risotto made from aged Acquerello rice to absorb every ingredient and flavour in full;
- beef fillet with red cabbage pesto: a traditional winter vegetable with a sweet edge gives this pesto dish punch;
- corn chicken breast with bell pepper pesto: with peas, snow peas, egg, a basmati rice galette and sublime bitter-sweet yellow-red pesto;
- Bundt cake with chocolate-mint pesto: a timeless German cake with a cool mint and rich chocolate pesto twist, served with a Mövenpick Espresso.
