Pick Your Own Pesto
Adding a handful of fresh herbs goes along way to improving the flavour of a simple pasta dish. And, picking those herbs from your garden or patio makes it taste even better. I had thrown out more than my share of wilted, packaged herbs from the grocery store, so I could see the benefits of planting my own. Not only is it more convenient to have them on hand, but it is also more economical.
My favourite fresh herb to accompany pasta dishes is basil. It is called for in most of the recipes I use and I love its intense, fresh, earthy flavour. Fortunately, it is easy to maintain and grows very quickly. This weekend, I decided to harvest what was left on my plants and make basil pesto as a sauce for pasta. On Saturday morning I picked up a couple of extra plants at the Brickworks Farmer’s Market just to be sure I had enough. If I was going to make my own pesto, I might as well make enough to freeze!
In the past I have used small plastic Ziploc containers to freeze it in, but more than half the time it was too much for the recipe I was making. This time I used ice cube trays to freeze the sauce. So simple and so fast. Here’s what to do:
Basil Pesto
Preparation time: 20 minutes
You’ll Need
- 6 cups washed, packed (pressed down) basil leaves
- ¼ cup pine nuts, toasted
- 2 garlic cloves, halved
- ½ cup olive oil (or more)
- ¼ cup parmesan cheese
- Salt and pepper to taste
Preparation
- Pack basil leaves, pine nuts and garlic into a food processor/blender and pulse until ingredients are blended.
- A little at a time, slowly add olive oil until pesto is smooth.
- Add parmesan cheese, salt and pepper, and pulse for one more minute.
- Serve pesto with your favourite pasta, as a pizza sauce, or on a sandwich.
- Spoon leftover pesto into ice cube trays, freeze overnight, remove cubes from tray and place in a large freezer bag or container for future use.
