Pizzachio! Pistachio Pesto Pizza

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When Sweets Go Nuts for Savoury

There are many ingredients that, at first thought, are associated with either sweet or savoury. Nonetheless, these items are becoming interchangeable between these two categories. As the world of sweet and savoury pairings is evolving, we are seeing more out of the box recipes expanding beyond some of the classics we are familiar with such as chocolate-covered pretzels or salted caramel brownies. In fact, this culinary sector has been present across various cuisines for years. Take, for example, some traditional Thanksgiving dishes like sweet potato casserole or cranberry sauce with turkey.

We have been familiar with the idea of sweet and savoury for a while, but as we continue to gain knowledge into the flavour profile and versatility of various ingredients, we are seeing them being utilized in more creative inspired recipes.

In addition to the desire to experiment, food trends are a major source of new and innovative ways to use seemingly common ingredients and transform them into a wide range of dishes. Food service industry publication, Food Business News, notes that, savoury flavours became a trend 8 to 10 years ago. The first movement was salty snacks, and then it started to expand with bacon everywhere, with high visibility in ice cream and chocolate. That was when there was a convergence of salty and sweet. That is old school now. It’s ubiquitous to see savoury sweet desserts.

Between what’s trending and chefs’ ambition to create new and innovative menu options, sweet and savoury pairing opens a whole new world of culinary treasures. Today, we are seeing a rise in the use of ingredients that may have been more commonly associated with sweet applications just as often in savoury applications. As stated in Food Business News, it is not accurate to say flavour trends are shifting from sweet to savoury, but it is accurate to note the influx of new flavour trends that tend to have a savoury positioning. A micro-trend identified by market researcher group Datassential is “new savoury,” which involves chefs taking traditionally sweet applications and turning them into “savoury-dominant concepts.”

 

In this light, we can see how many specialty dessert ingredient solutions can be applicable not just in various desserts, but savoury dishes as well. In the featured recipe, we have a Pistachio Pesto Pizza made with PreGel’s Green Pure Pistachio Traditional Paste. Many nuts, pistachios in particular (though they are botanically classified as a drupe fruit), are a common ingredient that you see frequently in sweet and savoury recipes. As explained by flavour firm, FONA International, the pistachio is known for its delicate and subtle flavour, and can be a perfect partner to many dishes and products. Its well-known flavour profile is showing clear growth as well, noted to create unique tastes when paired with stronger flavours ranging from halibut to chocolate bark.

Moreover, Research and Markets, an online market research store, predicts the global pistachio market to grow with a CAGR of 3.21% over the forecast period of 2020-2024 based on driver and opportunities including:

  • Rising usages of pistachio as a flavouring agent in the bakery product
  • Rising consumption of pistachio as a snack
  • Increasing application of pistachio in food confectionery and bakery items

The featured Pistachio Pesto Pizza recipe is one of many savoury applications PreGel pistachio pastes can be used for. If you are only flavouring your sweet options with pistachio paste, here’s a chance to step out of your comfort zone.