Making Pesto

With warm weather in May and most of the summer, we have had a good crop if basil in our garden this year. Today we harvested much of it to make pesto. Here the Mammoth Leaf Basil has already been harvested, and Tom is about to cut the standard variety.

The Mammoth variety lives up to it's name!

Here comes the next picking.

We inspect the leaves as we pick them off.

I stuff the food processor full of the basil leaves and chop.

Then I add walnuts ( a substitute for expensive pine nuts), Parmesan cheese and olive oil. You might notice the garlic is missing. We are pretty much a no-garlic household. I have never really liked it and both of us have trouble digesting it. That's why we like to make our own pesto.

When it's all blended and emulsified, I pour it into recycled plastic containers.

Now it will go into the freezer to enjoy this winter. Son Jake and his friend Tad have requested some too.

It's easy to just cut out a chunk, warn it in the microwave, and add it to pasta. We especially like it with angel hair pasta, stir fried chicken breast and sliced zucchini for an easy one-dish meal.

And we made sure to leave some basil in the garden to eat with the tomatoes that are beginning to ripen.