Friday Food Frolic! Garden Pesto!

The basil is plentiful in our garden at this time of year,
so I thought I’d share our favorite pesto recipe.

Basil Pesto
2 cups fresh basil leaves, packed
½ cup grated parmesan cheese (optional)
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
¼ cup pine nuts or walnuts (optional)
2 garlic cloves, minced
salt and pepper to taste

1. Rinse leaves and add to food processor.
2. Add olive oil. More or less depending on how thick you like your pesto.
3. Add garlic and cheese.
4. Add pine nuts/walnuts.
5. Add salt & pepper to taste.
Sometimes I omit the nuts & cheese and it tastes perfectly fine that way, too!
Tip – spend the $$ on quality pine nuts (don’t buy any from China) or you could end up with pine mouth!

How to preserve all that extra basil? Try:
**Drying**
Rinse the leaves and spread them single layer on a screen
OR
Tie the stems together and hang upside down in a dry, airy place.
Once the leaves are completely dry, crush them up into spice jars.
(Be sure they are completely dry or they will get moldy - yuck!)

**Freezing**
Half make the pesto recipe,
by blending just the basil and oil.
Freeze into ice cube trays
then transfer to an airtight freezer container.
Each ice cube holds about 2 tablespoons.
You can freeze the entire pesto recipe, too, if you want.