I’m off to a dinner party tonight at our friend’s new home. I’m bringing along a batch of my garden fresh pesto. I serve it with fresh baked bread, bought from a local bakery. This is the appetizer served at my favorite restaurant in town, Sweet Basil’s, so I always enough trying to make it taste as good as the restaurants.
The basil in our garden is doing better than anything else. The hot July sun hasn’t slowed down the growth at all, thankfully.
The fresh basil, with a couple of my cherry tomatoes peeking out.
Here’s the quick Pesto recipe I like to prepare when I’m off to a party and need to use up my basil.
1/2 cup walnuts (lightly toasted)
2 cups fresh basil
1 1/2 tablespoons of lemon juice (fresh from lemons is milder than from concentrate)
3-4 garlic cloves (if you want more of a kick, add more garlic)
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
I use my food processor to make this…toss in the walnuts and pulse 3-4 times. Add basic and pulse 3-4 times. Add in the lemon juice, garlic and Parmesan cheese. Pulse again 3-4 times. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add olive oil slowly while the food processor remains on. Make sure it doesn’t get too soupy. Season with a dash of salt and pepper.
I like to serve this with bread, but it’s also great with tomatoes and mozzarella as a spin on the classic salad. Or go traditional with pesto and your favorite pasta. Either way, it’s a great way to eat local (from your backyard) and share the wealth with friends. And now I’m off to dinner, looks like it will be a beautiful night outside Boston.
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One of my favorite things to make is fresh pesto too. Btw, if you have a lot of extra basil you can prepare pesto (omitting the Parmesan cheese) and freeze in ziploc servings until you are ready to eat. You just need to stir in the Parmesan at that point.
Since you are a fellow gardener, thought you might appreciate this cool time lapse video about an urban community that turns their junkyard into a sustainable garden in just one day.
http://www.youtube.com/kiacanada#p/a/u/0/13x4lySlXW4
Take a look at how Kia is driving change.
Enjoy!
Gigi
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