Monday, July 23, 2007

Pesto making

It's high time for fresh basil and that means it's high time for making pesto. I'm taking advantage of the summer bounty and freezing lots of berries, why not pesto? Ah ha. So much better than anything you can buy in the store.

So off we went to the Farmers Market on Saturday morning, and sure enough, easily found a booth selling bunches of basil for $1. Sweet. Read lots of different opinions and recipes on the internet, and finally settled for a simple one. Opted to not add in any cheese prior to freezing, so it's pretty much straight forward basil, pine nuts, garlic, a little salt, and olive oil. Perfect recipe for a Saturday evening...
recipe for a saturday evening

Super fresh basil...
Super fresh basil

Pine nuts and garlic...
Garlic and pine nuts

And the easiest way to freeze it is to pour it into ice cube trays, freeze, and then the next day, remove the cubes and store in a freezer bag.
Freezing in ice cube trays

Super delish. Super fresh. Super local. Yum.
P.S. Have you seen our lilies? Holy crap!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

love the pesto idea, I will be using it! Plus, your lilies! Holy Crap is RIGHT! Fabulous.

Tricia said...

What memories this brings...10 years ago-living on Bainbridge Island- we ferried over to the Market and bought 20 lbs of basil. Our fingers were purple. We had so much pesto...gave it away for Christmas with pasta bowls...I think we canned it. Haven't made it since. It was delicious, however. Hmmmmm...

witchtrivets said...

Yum. I agree -- making pesto is fun and delicious and such a wonderful summery thing to do.

However, mostly I love your kitchen and your decorating. Is that horrible thistle you have in a vase? Those things are mean, yet strangely attractive. I am carefully pulling them up in my yard. I am a little afraid of them. They never grew so large in NC. And those lilies -- those are not normal.

rodger said...

OMG...those lilies are crazy!! I love them! Do they have a strong scent? You must find out what they are.

Unknown said...

you gotta tell us when you figure out what those lilies are..they are gorgeous!!

and pesto..yummm...we've been doing that to, but jason just told me about your ice cube trick..;) good one! our neighbors are growing a ton of basil in their yard and we've been given free reign to pick as we please...:) we've got some in our gardens too, but it's not as plentiful yet, will be in a few more weeks with this rain though! :)

Ali and Evan said...

Ice cube trays. Genius!

Anonymous said...

Oh, your photos make me swoon. I love this idea with the ice cube tray! So often I buy a couple bunches of basil at the market with grand plans, and then end up tossing half of it on the compost pile. Thanks for this!