I know you’re not supposed to make pesto in a blender but I do. My kids absolutely love it in pasta. I have dreams of using pesto as a way to introduce them to a greater quantity of green vegetables. I can slip in slightly less pureed veggies like kale. Before you know it, we’ll be eating pasta with braised greens.
So this year, we devoted a large portion of the garden to basil. We called it “the pesto patch.” We froze enough half-pints of pesto to have a jar every week all year every other week.
In the bottom of the blender, pour 1 and 1/2 cups olive oil (or a mixture of 1/2 olive oil and another oil), 3 to 9 cloves of smashed and peeled garlic, 2 ounces grated parmesan cheese, 1 t salt, a handful of smashed roasted almond pieces (we couldn’t afford the pine nuts), and 3 T of white vinegar. The vinegar will keep the pesto looking bright green, at least that portion of the pesto not exposed to oxygen.
Blend into this as much basil as you can, feeding it in a bit at a time. Eventually the mixture will become so thick it will stop spinning like a whirlpool and start burping “glop, glop, glop.” You can keep feeding in basil if you open the blender and reinvigorate the whirpool with the end of your spatula (don’t go too deep or you’ll hit the blade). At some point, you just won’t be able to force any more basil down the blender’s throat. I can force about a cubic foot of loosely packed basil leaves (removed from the plant) into a cup and a half of oil. Pour into 3 to 4 half-pint jars. Repeat until your garden is bare.
a portion of the basil crop
I recommend planting basil next year (2012), as it’s supposed to be another cool summer. We found basil thrives in this weather. The trick is to irrigate it occasionally and pick the flower heads off every time you pass. The cool spring made it hard to start the basil from seed – at least I blame the weather for my failure to do so. After my basil seedlings failed to thrive, I bought starts and never looked back. Once established, the plants had no problem with the weather.
By last week, I was starting to worry I had let our basil go too long, as the last few times I’d walked by and picked off a leaf to chew, it had begun to turn bitter. But lo and behold, after a couple cool nights, the basil’s flavor mellowed dramatically, shifting back to sweet! I did not know this was possible – I’d thought once a plant had developed bitterness, there was no going back. So if you’re worried the cool weather is ruining your basil, get out there and make some pesto!
Joshua
Your jars of green pesto are pretty. What a great basil harvest you had this year. There are so many variations on pesto that make it fun & nutritious. I like you idea of putting kale in, I like the taste of a bit of parsley. We have been using walnuts since the pine nuts ha adding whive been so costly. I didn’t know that adding vinegar preserves the color, very cool. Thanks for the tip!
Also, wondering where you are that you had a cool summer? Ours was very hot, sometimes dry & sometimes wet. we have 4 basil patches, the one that did the best is in the shade…so there is something to it thriving in the cooler areas.
I should have said we had a cool spring here in Seattle. Our summer began late, like a song you hear coming from someone’s car but can’t quite make out. Later, August became very intense and hot and had something like 0.0 inches of rainfall. We didn’t hit the 90′s as often as we usually do, though.
I think the best side of the house to plant basil is the East side. Because the plant needs quick heat on cool mornings or cool springs, but then it needs shade from the worst excesses of hot summer weather – which occurs in the afternoon.
Joshua how wonderful – what do I have that I can trade you for a jar? You are freezing it now, right? Great tips for growing sweet basil.
Jennifer, the vinegar was a surprise to me too! I tried it on a whim and it worked like magic.
Annette, I’d love to trade some! Yes, I’m freezing it. It just doesn’t seem right to send that lovely green basil through a water bath.
Yes, thank you for the growing tips! I will like to try planting more basil next year. I also didn’t know the tip about using vinegar to preserve the color! Thanks!
Yum! I have basil in the greenhouse- do you think I can leave it in??
What’s your climate? How’s your weather? When temperatures are consistently below 50 degrees, your plants won’t get much benefit from staying in the ground.
Josh, we’re near Seattle. The green house is south facing, but only gets afternoon sun (we’re surrounded by heritage cedars!) It’s on a concrete slab, with the basil in big pots. It’s my first year with a green house, there’s a big learning curve
Myrnie, your greenhouse sounds wonderful. What a great way to get a longer season. I think I would probably harvest my basil now, even in a greenhouse. You might get away with pushing it into October, if the weather is nice. But as it gets colder, the color and flavor will begin to fade, giving you a less flavorful pesto. Have fun!
Day late, dollar short, but I harvested and made the pesto today- turned out AMAZING, thanks for the advice and recipe!
So glad to hear it! Isn’t pesto easy?
Wow, I didn’t know you could freeze pesto. This year I made mine with pecans, being as I’m from Texas and always have pecans while the pine nuts were still at the store…best pesto EVER! Thanks for the post now I’ll be freezing pesto!
Freezing is the way to go! Water bath processing – even after adding enough vinegar to make it safe – just makes the pesto drab and unattractive.
You can use any nut, so it’s great you have so many pecans available. Have you tried roasting some or all of the pecans before adding to the pesto? That might add a nice flavor.
I love all your pesto! I live in the Phoenix AZ area and needless to say it is HOT here! My genovese basil seems to love, I mean really love the heat here though, I make pesto ALL summer long, and am just finishing it up to freeze some batches to last me thru the winter! I use lemon juice instead of vinegar as I don’t like the taste the vinegar gives the pesto. Also, instead of the pine nuts I use pistaccios and romano cheese instead of the parmesan. Nice variations, and I like the pistaccios better than the pinenuts.
I love your post. Such a bounty of green goodness… looks wonderful! I harvested the last of my basil this weekend and have been making/freezing pesto. I love your idea of adding vinegar to keep the color. I use sunflower seeds instead nuts (allergies!). I freeze mine in ice-cube tray lined with plastic and then transfer to ziplock bags.
Sounds like a great variation, I love sunflower butter! I used to do the ice-cube trays but really we use it a half-pint at a time.
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How much head room do you recommend for freezing in glass mason jars? I tried freezing some pumpkin this fall and two jars exploded.
I used quart sized jars. Maybe the jars were too big?
I prefer freezing in smaller jars – half-pints. I leave a half inch for pesto, but pesto doesn’t expand much as it’s mostly oil and not water. To my eye, oil does not appear to expand when frozen. With other preserves, richer in water than oil, the expansion can be more explosive – and the larger the jars, the greater the expansion. And quart jars are especially troublesome, as they have “shoulders” that don’t allow stuff to expand freely towards the lid. Pint jars full of pumpkin should be fine with 3/4 of an inch – but make sure they’re wide-mouthed jars.