What do you do when you have a ton of basil and garlic?

[sarahmichigan]

pesto-july-2011, a photo by sarahmichigan on Flickr.

You make pesto! My basil plants were going gonzo and needed to be harvested before it flowered, and the farm share has given us a ton of lovely small, purple garlic bulbs, so naturally I knew what I had to do...

I didn't have pine nuts, so I used toasted walnuts in the recipe and blended the nuts, basil, garlic, really good parmesan and extra virgin olive oil into the food processor. I don't usually use lemon but tried it this time, and it added a nice bright, sparkling note to the pesto, I thought.

I spooned it into a cupcake pan and froze it. Later, I thawed the pan in warm water in the sink, and then put the "hockey pucks" of pesto into freezer bags for later. (Each hockey puck is enough to season about 3-4 servings worth of pasta.) There was enough pesto stuck to the pan to make a couple servings, so I scraped that out and immediately made cheese raviolis with pesto. Yum!

Comments

[meecie.livejournal.com]

Must be the season, I made pesto this week too :-D I did use pine-nuts, but for the next batch, when I'm out, I plan on using sesame seeds (which I've heard are a good substitute for people with nut allergies, and plus...they're super cheap)

[sarahmichigan.livejournal.com]

I LOVE sesame seeds - I'll have to try that.

I've seen a recipe for an almond-dill "pesto" and I might have to try that since I always get a ton of dill every year, too.

[labelleizzy.livejournal.com]

*jaw dropping*
*envy*

omnomnom...