Sunday, July 25, 2010

Crazy for Pesto
























I always love to make pesto this time of year when the basil is so prolific you just have to do something before it reaches it tipping point and start to go bitter.. usually just about when the flowers buds appear on the plants. As I have stated in some of my previous posts, I am so fortunate to have an amazing neighbour Anton, who I and all of my friends refer to as the "Renaissance Man" he is such a person as he has so much knowledge in so many fields and is an amazing gardener. He is of of course much more organized than I am and has already harvested his first and second crop of basil and made amazing pesto, and he offered me the third cutting today and even sprayed it off last night so there would be no grit on it and make an easy job for me to prepare.. now that is helpful!

Since pine nuts are so expensive, I decided to make the pesto with walnuts ( Anton advised me to soak them overnight and then dehydrate them to near crispness to give a "clean" taste) and it worked out perfectly. Since I plan to use the pesto over the course of the coming months and year, I decided to freeze the pesto in zip lock bags which claim little storage space in the freezer and which are a breeze to use as you can just cut off the portion of the log of pesto that you want for the waiting culinary creation.
There are of course so many recipes out for pesto but I used a ratio of 2 cups basil to 1/2 olive oil to 1/2 cups nuts, a pinch of salt, a clove or two of garlic and processed it in my food processor. I did not add cheese as this doesn't freeze as well. Bon Courage with your pesto making efforts!