It’s fall and we are getting a TON of rain. I had to cut the basil plants down today, so I thought I would harvest everything and make pesto! I can’t wait to have a yummy Friday night dinner of pesto on brown rice pasta.
This year we had amazing, productive basil plants that I grew from Seeds of Change organic seeds. Below you can see my basil sprouts, and then the final product. Keep in mind that I’d also been harvesting basil tops most of the summer, too! The secret to growing good basil (other than nice weather)… don’t water the plants from overhead, but underneath on the soil. I had a automatic watering pot with a well on the bottom cavity of the pot. Also if you live in a very hot climate, basil will need some shade. I also clipped the flowers off before they could develop, to ensure that the plant made more leaves than flowers. Go here to look at organic seeds from Seeds of Change.
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Tips for making Pesto
- Try blending less and making it chunky, like the picture, for a more rustic pesto.
- To make pesto sauce – blend 1 cup pesto with 1/2 to 1 cup of broth.
- This is great on rice pasta, but also wonderful on meats and especially fish… my favorite is pesto salmon. Sally also recommends it on corn-on-the-cob!
- You can also make this recipe using cilantro instead of basil.
- This recipe freezes well. If I freeze I add maybe a 1/2 teaspoon of citric acid (used in cheese making) to each 1/2 cup of pesto. If you don’t do this it will look fine while sealed but when you open it, the pesto will oxidize and turn dark green. We have still eaten it this way and it’s fine but more pleasing with the original green color.
Basil Pesto
Rating: 4 forks (key)
Difficulty:
Easy
Page in NT: 144
Ingredients:
- 2 cups packed fresh basil leaves, washed and dried
- 2-4 cloves garlic, peeled
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt [See Resources]
- 1/4 cup crispy pine nuts [See Resources]
- 1/4 cup good quality grated Parmesan cheese
- 1/4-1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil [See Resources]
Equipment:
Preparation:
Place basil leaves in food processor. Pulse until well chopped. Add garlic, salt, pine nuts and cheese and blend well. Using attachment for adding liquids drop by drop, and with motor running, add olive oil to form a thick paste. Pesto will keep several days, well sealed, in refrigerator; or it may be frozen.
Photo courtesy of ImipolexG on Flickr
I wrote this post while participating in the Sowing Millions Project by Real Food Media on behalf of Seeds of Change. I received product and exclusive content to facilitate my post. However, my thoughts and opinions are my own and not of those of Real Food Media or Seeds of Change.
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
I have found that most of the pine nuts that are available in most grocery stores are the variety that comes from Asia. They are usually bitter and of poor quality. If I can’t find good quality pine nuts then I like to use another variety of nuts. Pistachio nuts are perfect as are cashews. I tried Macadamia nuts once. Not too good…
I agree Fred… I always buy nuts from trusted sources now or I get them locally or we just don’t eat them. I would suggest taking a look at my resources list for nuts though as I’ve had great luck there.
I made pesto last week. I use walnuts instead of pine nuts and I actually like the taste better. Also to keep the color I rub a wedge of lemon on the sides of the container and pour olive oil on top instead of adding it inside during processing. Hope this helps.
I have been vegetable gardening for many years and wanted to share what I do with my own huge crop of basil every summer. Since I can never use it all at once, and after all that work I don’t want to give it all away either, I preserve it in oil for later use. This requires no refrigeration, and the resulting basil is excellent for cooked recipes and for making pesto later on in winter. (I make jars of home-made pesto to give away as gifts at Christmas too.)
And preserving in oil is ridiculously easy. Use glass mason jars and pack them almost full of fresh basil leaves. Then pour olive oil in to fill it and push the leaves around to get the air bubbles out. Don’t overfill the leaves, to leave a little room at the top to make a “cap” of extra oil that no leaves are sticking out of. Afterward I sprinkle a little sea salt on top as well, to discourage mold. Then I put them ini my “cold cellar” which is just an extra room in my basement.
The basil leaves keep this way for many months, even up to more than a year, although I like basil so much I usually use it up by spring. However, I have used year-old basil preserved this way to make pesto that tasted almost as good as fresh. Sometimes if a jar is kept a very long time the top part might get a little dark (certainly not always) but I just scoop that part out and use the greener stuff underneath. If a jar has “gone bad” (perhaps too much oxygen was left in it, or something came into contact with it) you can tell right away because it doesn’t smell nice, the way it should.
The basil flavor stays very fresh this way and you get to choose when you want to use it!
Sarah… this is an amazing tip, thanks so much! I am definitely trying this next year!
You are welcome, Kim!
I forgot to add, that if I have truly large amounts of it, I sometimes chop it up before I stuff the jar, just to make more room. (I use a chopstick to poke it and get the air out.) Also, I have had very good results preserving a few other herbs with this same process: lemon balm works very well, as do tarragon, winter savory, sage, and scallions. (Scallions don’t last as long however – usually no more than six months.)
Another thing I discovered just this past summer: pesto made with lemon balm instead of basil is delicious on fish!
Sarah… this is great!! Maybe I could do this with rosemary right now then? That is the only herb that I have in abundance now with the colder weather coming on. Have you tried rosemary?
Kim, sorry to take so long to respond!
I always dry rosemary, since it retains its flavor so well that way, and keeps for ages that way too. I have put rosemary into olive oil to flavor the oil for cooking though.