Beside the Stream

After making an effort this spring to empty out the deep freeze , I’m in the process of filling it up again.  18 chickens, lots of apricots, and now it’s time to get some basil ready for winter.  We have a big patch this year, and I don’t want to waste it.

Besides basil, pesto only requires four ingredients: Parmesan cheese, olive oil, garlic and nuts.  I think pinon nuts are traditional, but Bob hates them and walnuts are cheaper.

The Silver Palate recipe calls for 2 cups packed basil leaves to 1 1/4 cups grated cheese, 1 cup nuts and 4 cloves of garlic in the food processor, using olive oil to thin it out.  Start with the garlic, drizzle in olive oil, and then stuff in all the basil.  Turn on the processor again, adding olive oil until the mixture is a reasonable consistency, and then add the walnuts.  Add oil again, slowly, and then add in the cheese.  Add salt and pepper, make sure you’ve added enough oil, and it’s done. 

I used an ice cream scoop to put the pesto on a cookie sheet, and stuck the tray in the freezer.  Three hours later, I put the hardened pesto cookies into ziplock bags, and stashed them all in the deep freeze for winter.  I made nearly 10 pounds of pesto this round, and when I eyeballed the basil patch again I realized that I was less than half done.  So I could easily end up with 25 pounds of pesto downstairs… and then I thought, so what.  Be bold.  Save money.  There’s nothing wrong with frozen pesto that can’t be cured by a little pasta.