Summer Bounty

No, that's not a new line of paper towels, it's what we have been harvesting from our garden. We planted 2 patches of basil - one in a planter under a tree near the garden, and another on the ground where Monkey dumped the seeds. Both have been very prolific, let me tell you! We've been making pesto a couple times every week, and I will be making some batches to freeze soon. Here's how we do it. This is a very precise recipe, please follow exactly!

OK, you ready?

Take a couple cloves of garlic, peeled, and toss them in the blender or food processor.

Grind them up a little til minced. Then add a lot of basil. The more the merrier!

Let the basil and garlic get nice and cozy together, while adding some of this:

That, my friends is Pure Olive Oil - not the whimpy EVOO kind.

Then you add some of these to taste. I like nuts, either a small handful of walnuts, pinenuts if you're a little on the wild side, or, like I used tonight, already ground almonds, because I found them really cheap after the holidays and put them in the freezer. If you can't tell with my shoddy photography skills, that's salt and pepper hiding behind the ammonds (as my Ag teacher in high school used to call them.)

Grind them all up together, as fine or as coarse as you would like. This batch was a little on the coarser side, but a blender will give you a smoother, creamier pesto.

Now, this is my dish after I started eating. I just couldn't help myself! The pasta is sprinkled liberally with plain old grated parmesan, which gives it a nice salty flavor to go with the pesto. I prefer to garnish with the cheese rather than mix it into the pesto itself, since the warm pasta will melt the cheese and make a big gooey mess on the serving spoon and pot or dish. This was served with yummy, homegrown Roma tomatoes sliced with red onion and drizzled with homemade red wine vinegar (smuggled from California in the back of a range rover) more of that pure olive oil and more salt and pepper.

Here is Farmgirl's recipe, which is similar, and her yummy Tomato Pesto Pie.

We've also made homemade pizza with pesto, cheese, red onion and tomatoes.