Basil Pesto Goodness

Back again! I can't believe I have waited this long to post. I am REALLY trying to get back into this thing, but its just hard to find the time, ya know?!?

 

I have a recipe to share with you. I made garden pesto for the first time ever!

 

While meandering through the raised beds the other day, I saw my basil plant was giantic and starting to go to seed. I only planted one basil plant this year, but it was HUGE and I knew just what I wanted to do.

 

I started by snipping of a bunch of nice healthy leaves. Right around 2 cups.

I brought them in and washed them really good. I am slightly OCD about this part. I picked up each individual leaf and made sure it was clean and had no bad spots on it.

 

 

 

Then, I dried them on a towel slightly.

 

I was using this recipe and knew that I didn't have any pine nuts, so I did a quick search and found that you can use lots of different types of nuts in pesto, just like you can use different herbs, even spinach!!

I look in the pantry and we had a bag of almonds. I blanched them in a pot of boiling water for 3 minutes so that the bitter skins would fall right off.....

This was the fun part! Popping those nuts out of the skins was hilarious and therapeutic.

I love my food processor. I use it for everything.

I threw in the basil and nuts and gave it a quick spin, stopping occasionally to scrap the sides. I added in some minced garlic at this point as well.

 

A little oil, a little lemon juice, a quick pulse, and we have baby poop colored pesto!

 

I was a little shocked at the color. I don't think I added my lemon juice early enough...

I did take a taste and its was A-MAZING!

 

I knew I was making something with pesto that eve for dinner, but this had made a TON so I decided to freeze the rest. I popped a tablespoon full into each egg hole and stuck it in the freezer. Then, popped them back out frozen and put them into a freezer bag for later use. I just didn't add the cheeses because they don't freeze well. I will add parm and romano cheese to each pesto meal as they come along ove rthe nezt few months.

 

 

Here is dinner. Didn't photograph that well, but this was the best thing to ever come out of my garden. Seriously. I sauted some peppers, garlic, and heirloom tomatoes in a little EVOO and mixed it in with the pesto angle hair pasta.

YUM!

 

In other news.....



I cleaned out the fridge. Who in the world, needs this much jelly?!?

But I couldn't just throw it away.

Anyone have a good recipe that uses a boat load of it?