Jim Moseley of Petersham abounds with energy and enthusiasm.

He runs a delivery company and writes religious books at a prodigious rate. He also loves food and cooking, and is the author of “The Mystery of Herbs and Spices: Intimate Biographies of the World’s Most Notorious Ingredients.”

Although he first wrote that book almost two decades ago, it may still be purchased online on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. I asked Moseley how he developed his interest in herbs and spices.

“I mainly became aware of them when I was 20 and I had jobs in Italy,” he recalled. “I was working for a transportation company, and then I became director of international development for Brinks.”

He traveled for business throughout Europe, North Africa and Asia, he said.

“I was always interested in cuisine. So I was kind of snoopy,” he said. “Every time I went into a restaurant and I had something I liked, I would stand up and I would ask, ‘Can I go into the kitchen?’…. I took notes everywhere.”

In addition to learning about flavorings in international kitchens, he decided to investigate the native habitats of some of the spices he enjoyed. While working in Mumbai, he would spend his weekends traveling.

Moseley visited a cardamom plantation in the South Indian state of Kerala and watched cinnamon bark being harvested and dried in Sri Lanka.

When, at length, he returned to the United States, he wowed his friends with his cooking. Their questions led to his authorship of the book on herbs and spices.

Personally, I would call it a book about flavorings rather than just herbs and spices. It includes foods that we don’t normally tend to think of as spices: sugar, chocolate and coffee, for example. It lists the foods in alphabetical order, sharing anecdotes and recipes along the way.

“There are a lot of [other] books on spices,” Moseley said. “They don’t tell you all the unbelievable stories about the lore of these ingredients. These ingredients have caused countries to go to war. They’ve been used for all sorts of magical reasons.”

I asked him to identify the most striking thing he had learned doing research for his book, and he volunteered the story of Ferdinand Magellan, who set sail in 1519 looking for a western route to the Spice Islands. His expedition would be the first to go around the world.

“He had no maps,” Moseley explained in a tone of wonder. “He had no radio. He had ridiculously small and leaky ships. He was going where no one had ever gone before. The hissing swells of the Pacific would take him four frightening months to cross, without laying eyes once on land.

“There would be nothing like this adventure for another 500 years — not until our exploration of space.”

Magellan himself was killed in the Philippines before his expedition could return to Spain. Many of his crew died as well. A mere 18 of the original 237 sailors made it home.

They brought with them a bounty of cloves and nutmeg, however, enough to enrich the shareholders in the expedition far beyond their expectations.

“No one doubted for one second that the whole adventure had been worth it!” concluded Moseley.

(It occurred to me when I heard this that perhaps Magellan himself had his doubts at the moment of his death at the hands of Lapu-lapu, the first recorded Filipino hero. I chose not to share this thought with Moseley, however.)

Ironically, after all his research and writing, Jim Moseley doesn’t do most of the cooking in his own home. He informed me that his wife, who is Armenian, is “the most stunning and magnificent cook.”

“If you married Leonardo da Vinci,” he asked dramatically, “how much time would you spend painting?”

He does venture into the kitchen from time to time, however. The dish below, Pesto alla Genovese (Genovese Pesto), is one of his favorites. He learned to make it from a family in Tuscany who taught him a lot about food and life.

The family more or less adopted him, he remembered.

“If I didn’t show up for lunch, the doorbell of my little apartment would ring,” he said with a smile.

Moseley recommends serving this dish with a white wine, or perhaps a rosé. The quality of the ingredients matters above all, he told me.

He suggests purchasing extra-virgin olive oil made by De Cecco; he says he sometimes uses Kirkland brand from Costco as well. For pasta, he likes De Cecco. The basil should have broad leaves, he insists. And the cheese should be well-aged.

Moseley likes to stir in the toasted pine nuts after he has processed the pesto so that they provide little pops of flavor.

To me, the most surprising part of this recipe is the inclusion of yogurt. (Moseley says one can also use softened cream cheese or heavy cream.) I look forward to making it.

Jim Moseley’s Pesto alla Genovese

Ingredients:

■½ cup pine nuts

■2 cups fresh sweet basil leaves

■1 cup fresh parsley

■4 cloves garlic (or more, to taste)

■1 cup extra-virgin olive oil

■1 cup imported Parmesan cheese, grated

■½ cup imported pecorino Romano cheese, grated

■½ cup nonfat yogurt

■¼ tsp salt

■Freshly ground pepper to taste

Instructions:

Heat the pine nuts in a dry frying pan until they are golden brown.

Process the basil, the parsley and the garlic in a food processor until they are finely chopped. With the machine running, pour the oil into the mixture in a thin, steady stream.

Add the cheeses, the yogurt, the salt and the pepper. Process briefly to combine. Stir in the toasted pine nuts and serve over spaghetti, penne or orecchiette.

Makes 2 cups pesto.

Tinky Weisblat is an award-winning author and singer. Her most recent book is “Pot Luck: Random Acts of Cooking.” Visit her website, TinkyCooks.com.

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