There is more than one kind of pesto; the genovese variant is just the best known and most widely used. Another very popular kind is pesto rosso, which is based on sun-dried tomatoes and is likely to be of southern Italian origin where they are semi-popular. It appears to be unrelated to pesto genovese, but some recipes do include basil at least. Some contain peppers. I've seen commercial pesto rosso in "alimentari" and supermarkets in Italy and even here in Germany it can be found in nearly every supermarket, it seems.
Here is a recipe from Patricia Wells's Trattoria.
Victor
Red Pesto Sauce Pesto rosso
10 sun-dried tomatoes 1 plump fresh garlic clove, minced 1-2 teaspoon crushed red peppers (hot red pepper flakes), or to taste 6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil About 20 salt-cured black olives, such as Italian Gaeta or French Nyons olives, stoned 2 teaspoons minced fresh thyme leaves 1 tablespoon minced fresh rosemary leaves
In the bowl of a food processor, combine all the ingredients and process until the sauce is lightly emulsified but still quite coarse and almost chunky. (You do not want a smooth sauce.) The sauce can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 1 month. If you do so, first cover the pesto with a film of olive oil.
Yield: 4 fl oz (125 ml) sauce
