What to do with A LOT of Basil.......

We got down to 34 degrees a few days last week so time to harvest all the tomatoes I can but what to do with all the basil?

Make Pesto of course!



Made 75% with Pine nuts, 25% with Walnuts, 25% with Pecans. You can really taste the difference with the Walnuts and Pecans. Easy recipe and a good workout for that fancy Cuisinart the wife bought.

Garlic overload as well!

I didn't think there was such a thing as garlic overload!

Nice stash, Mike!

Gorgeous! A person can never have too much pesto!

Are you kidding,

I got the job of tasting each batch for salt/pepper amounts.I can currently knock someone down at 10ft with my breath!

No vampire worries tonight.......

Looks good Mike. You know some of that basil would have been great in a mead ..........
VC

Looks great. I love a good home made Pesto. If you grow fresh Basil you can simply freeze the leaves. Thats what we do with our sweet basil. Also, I agree there is no such thing as too much garlic. If I have a recipe that says use one clove I use at least 5. I normally use one bulb as one clove.

Mike,

I think you should consider a second career as food photographer. Everything is staged so perfectly - how could we not be envious?!

It really does look great. What are the ratios of basil to oil to pine nuts to whatever?

Thanks Ike,

I was trying to make it look appealing! Luckily it freezes nicely like smurfe said so we gave some away and will freeze the rest. I love pesto but am soooo garliced out I can't even think about it right now.

Here is the recipe we used. Its pretty easy stuff to make:

Fresh Basil Pesto Recipe

INGREDIENTS

2 cups fresh basil leaves, packed
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan-Reggiano or Romano cheese
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/3 cup pine nuts or walnuts
3 medium sized garlic cloves, minced
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Special equipment needed: A food processor (Check Amazon.com's sale on Cuisinart food processors.)

METHOD

1 Combine the basil in with the pine nuts, pulse a few times in a food processor. (If you are using walnuts instead of pine nuts and they are not already chopped, pulse them a few times first, before adding the basil.) Add the garlic, pulse a few times more.
2 Slowly add the olive oil in a constant stream while the food processor is on. Stop to scrape down the sides of the food processor with a rubber spatula. Add the grated cheese and pulse again until blended. Add a pinch of salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.

Makes 1 cup.

Serve with pasta, or over baked potatoes, or spread over toasted baguette slices.

The garlic we get here, comes from such a variety of sources, and has VERY different tastes and qualities! Most of our garlic is Russian Red garlic and is quite a bit more pungent than typical grocery store garlic. Where a recipe says 4 to 5 cloves, we only need 2!

I'm a garlic freak! I used to always double or triple the garlic, but not now. Yugoslavian red garlic is even hotter than Russian and quite a bit more fragrant. You walk into a house using that garlic and people know you are Slavic! 2 other types that are VERY Strong are Northern Quebec, which is a porcelain garlic (very white) and is quite endangered and hard to find. This is the best tasting garlic I've ever had. I'm lucky to have found 2lbs to plant this fall. The other garlic is called Racey. It's a red stripe garlic and is so HOT that most people don't like it. I LOVE it in Caesar salad and sausages! It also makes a killer pesto!