I love good pesto. It has all the right ingredients for a wonderful meal. Cheese, basil, olive oil, all ground (Italian “pestare” to crush) together with pine nuts and just a hint of at least one other secret ingredient which, depending on where you’re from, is a key ingredient that makes your particular family pesto something special. Pesto recipes have been modified for many years, but most generally agree that pesto is Italian and should, therefore, contain Italian ingredients. But every once in a while, something changes a recipe, resulting in a magnificent pesto with surprising results. Such is the case with the Alfa Romeo Montreal. A brilliant and crushingly powerful pesto of Italian origin with a surprisingly Canadian inspiration and namesake.
The 1967 Montreal prototype.
Italians and Canadians have a long and rich history together. Italian migration to Canada was robust throughout the 19th and 20th century and continues today. In 1967, the Canadian Montreal Expo invited the world to visit Canada with the enticing theme “Man and Technology.” The organizers contacted Alfa Romeo and Bertone requesting a concept car that would reflect the very latest in sporting technology. Of course, the flattered Italians complied. Bertone elicited the prodigious skills of Marcello Gandini who responded with a fastback coupe reminiscent of his incomparable Lamborghini Miura. Offered as a 2+2 coupe with the typically seen Alfa overhead cam, four-cylinder engine, two prototypes were displayed at Montreal to surprisingly high acclaim. Interest rapidly grew for the novel sports car, though still lacking a proper name.
