Fresh Pesto

Potted Basil

With freeze warning out for tonight, I’ve been busy gathering the last of the snap beans, beets, green and ripe tomatoes, grapes and Basil and Tarragon. I’ll make pesto with the Basil and concentrated Tarragon tea to freeze. (See the post on Tarragon)

By the way, I failed to get a picture of the basil in my garden, so I’ve used the photo of potted basil. If you have potted basil, just bring it in to enjoy fresh all winter.

Last year when I had so much basil to use, I heard about making pesto and freezing it. Since I love pesto, this seemed like such a good idea. So I froze it in ice cube trays and when frozen, I put the cubes in a zip lock bag. Then all during the year I could just get out a cube or two and thaw it to use with pasta, or in salad dressing or in soups and best of all, spread on toasted baguette slices. So if you have a lot of Basil to use up, think about the pesto idea. You can follow this simple recipe to make such an easy pesto.

Fresh Basil Pesto

3 cups fresh basil leaves, packed

3/4 cup Parmesan or Romano cheese

3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/3 cup toasted pine nuts or walnuts or almonds

3-4  medium sized garlic cloves, minced

Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Place nuts in food processor and pulse a few times. in a food processor. Add Basil and pulse a few more times.  Add the garlic, pulse a few more times.

Slowly add the olive oil while the food processor is on, stopping to scrape down the sides. Add the cheese and pulse a few times till blended. Add salt and pepper.

Makes 1 1/2-2  cups

Use fresh or freeze to use later.