There’s hardly any kind of herb more wonderful than fresh Basil. I choke each time I have to spend three or four bucks for a skimpy twig of fresh Basil in the grocery store. Its really easy to grow this stuff in abundance (and I have a bunch of seed started for this year as I write). A five gallon bucket with two plants in it, kept watered, will give the average kitchen plenty for use as a fresh herb. Basil is one of the best scents of a fresh kitchen, and you most certainly can’t trust a person who doesn’t like it.
But for us, a five gallon bucket of basil wasn’t enough. We had pesto in mind. I had a huge crop of Basil a few years back. I grew Basil in the holes of the cinder blocks that outline my garden beds. I had six varieties, and between my wife and I, we discovered that we really just prefer the classic Italian Genovese Basil. I had more than a dozen of these plants, all grew to about two or three feet high. These beauties were flourishing among thirty or so luscious Basil plants of various kinds. But, as it goes with flowering plants, during the heat of summer they could not resist bolting to seed. That means they give up the making of leaves and put all their energy into flowering. When this happens, the gardener must be ruthless – pinch the flower heads off at their first appearance, and get all of them (I often apologized to them while robbing them of their maturity). Removing the flower heads keeps the plants focused on what they ought to be doing in the garden – serving up delicious leaves. Besides, it makes your fingers smell really good too.
Its not easy to stay on top of eager Basil plants in the coastal summer heat, they love to put on dozens of flower heads per plant, making the flower pinching a real task if you have more than a few bushes. I finally cut the plants back in earnest (use scissors or garden shears and cut back a bolting summer plant by half. Or you could use the weed whacker if not harvesting, but that’s for knuckle-draggers). This kind of extreme pruning will yield bushier plants with stout woody trunks, and will get you a few smaller, late summer harvests that you otherwise might not get at all. Once the plants start blooming and setting seed, they get skunky.
So, that chopping the plants in half left me with six paper bags full of yummy, fragrant basil leaves, because I did not use the weed whacker method. I gave away five bags to folks at church, but kept the Genovese Basil for making fresh Pesto.
Pesto!
Yes, lets say it again: Pesto! A green delight often encountered over pasta, but useful in so many more dishes. Here is a wonderful but short history of Pesto that claims that it goes back to the Roman times. While that may be, and while this Roman recipe for a Pesto may be wonderful, it has no Basil. Basil adds smiles.
It is a sauce most attributed to Genoa, Italy, hence the reason Genovese Basil is the only true variety worthy of this green goodness. It can be made quickly if you have the ingredients, and its good spicy with garlic and red pepper, or mild and herbal. We enjoy Pesto sauce on pasta, and I enjoy it on crusty bread or as a dip.
There are several recipes for pesto, but all of the true pesto recipes have some common ingredients – pine nuts, garlic, Basil leaves, olive oil and Romano cheese. There are a number of recipes and you can use whatever one you like, just find some, make some pesto and enjoy. But here’s a wonderful trick I discovered in Jim Long’s Herbs 101 book – make a bunch ahead of time, leave out the cheese, and freeze in small batches. Just blend all ingredients except any cheeses you might use, because they do not freeze well. You can make a cheese-less pesto and freeze it in ice-cube trays, and when you are ready to use some, thaw and add the cheese then. Brilliant!
My Pesto Recipe
This is a double batch. Cut in half for a single.
- 2 to 3 cups of basil leaves packed loosely
- 1/2 teaspoon of good salt
- 3 to 4 cloves of fresh garlic
- 4 heaping tablespoons of pine nuts
- 1 cup of extra virgin olive oil
- Dash or pinch or for heaven’s sake, a tablespoon if you can take it, of red pepper flakes, to taste (but really, just a dash)
Instructions
Pick your Basil (or buy a bunch) and wash to eliminate any dirt or hitchhikers. Take all large stems out of the basil sprigs. I took out the toughest stems but left in the smaller, succulent ones. Pack loosely into a measuring cup until you have 2 to 3 cups. Transfer to food processor.
Add the salt. I eyeballed it and used our Pink Himalayan salt (its our standard salt here).
Toss in the garlic cloves, the pine nuts, the extra virgin olive oil, and the pepper, and blend until coarsely unified. The smell will be delightful and will make you exclaim “Prega il Signore!” with a bad Italian accent and much hand-waving and throwing of kisses.
Add cheese to taste if you plan on using it now, but if not, put it in an ice cube tray or snack baggie and freeze it for later. You can thaw it out when its time to use and add your cheeses to taste. The cheese does not freeze well. The classic recipe calls for a Parmesan/Romano mix, others call for Pecorino, which is a similar Italian Romano.
Lessons we Learned
As we made pesto several times over, we learned some things the hard way, things that will make life better. Place your ice tray filled with pesto inside a plastic bag, unless you actually enjoy Basil-flavored ice cream and fruit. Some folks put a small layer of olive oil on top after filling the tray, that way the pesto on the surface doesn’t darken, but I don’t really mind. I did not add crushed enough red pepper, which would have made a really nice pesto into a fantastic pesto.
I also learned that I need to use a proper food processor and not the Vitamix. The Vitamix made something more akin to a pesto smoothie. While it will work fine, it should be more coarse than a smoothie, even more coarse than a chutney, but not as coarse as Tabouli.
So there it is, grow some Basil, make some Pesto, and then eat well!
Alysheba Kitchen 