If you live in a sunny, warm area that gets lots of rain, basil is the herb for you. During the rainy season, you can practically sit out on the back porch and watch it grow. Not that I have, of course. I’m too busy looking at Cute Overload and listening to Parry Gripp while I pretend to edit wedding photos and schedule photo shoots for AirBnB to watch basil grow (snort!).
Which is probably why I was surprised by an abundance of basil last week. Perhaps due to the cool weather we’ve been having, the basil started flowering a couple weeks ago. I have been stubbornly picking off the flowerheads in an effort to keep it growing leaves but my basil plants seem equally determined to flower (I imagine the plants having a dialogue not unlike that of the oranges in this Eddie Izzard skit).
Fortunately, our recent run of dark and stormy nights afternoons have completely de-railed its former plans of going to seed. Hence today’s recipe.
Pesto
Ingredients
- As many basil leaves as you can stuff into 2 cups
- 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 1/3 cup pine nuts
- 3 garlic cloves
- Salt and pepper, to taste
Preparation
- Load up the food processor with the basil and pine nuts and pulse a few times until desired shreddy-ness is reached. Empty basil and pine nuts into a bowl.
- Grate the garlic* and cheese and add to the basil and pine nuts. Pour in the olive oil and mix well with a fork. Add salt and pepper to taste.
*You can also put the whole garlic cloves into the food processor along with the basil and pine nuts and pulse together. Garlic laughs at my tiny food processor (which is clearly designed for garlic-free vampire kitchens), so I grate it with an old school tinned copper oroshi-gane.
Canon EOS 5D with ST-E2, 1/180th @ f8, ISO 200. 580EX II at 1/8th power bounced off back wall.
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