Pesto!

My basil crop ended up producing fairly well for us, this year. [My Roma tomatoes, on the other hand? Still green.]

Last year when I made pesto, I did all the chopping by hand. And let me just say, chopping handfuls of basil into tiny pieces with a knife isn't too exciting.

This year?

Hello, new kitchen friend.

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I fully enjoyed this new kitchen appliance. [And thank you, Dana, for the KitchenAid recommendation.] I'm not exactly sure what else this will come in handy for, yet, but making pesto ROCKS with it.

Here's the pesto recipe I use:

2 cups basil (washed)
1/4 cup pine nuts
3 garlic cloves
1 T lemon juice
1/4 cup olive oil

*The recipe also calls for 1/4 cup parmesan, but since I'm freezing it, and cheese doesn't freeze so well, I add that later.

This is what I do after the pesto is all blended up:

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That doesn't look very pretty, I realize. But it tastes really good. And that's what matters.

And here it is, frozen in handy chunks. That way when I make pizza sauce or spaghetti sauce or pasta, I can just grab a couple of cubes out and plop them in for extra flavor. Mmm!

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7 comments:

  1. how nice to have a kitchen friend like that!

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  2. Looks yummy to me! And I've finally gotten a few ripe romas here, so you're bound to get some soon too.
    Rebeca

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  3. Yay for pesto! My roma's are still green too. :(

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  4. In our area it seems I always need to pick the green tomatoes and wrap them in newspaper. It really works and your tomatoes will ripen in boxes and be delicious. If you wait too long, the blight will get them!

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  5. Glad you aren't chopping this year...I can't even imagine that!

    I do mine the same way...ice cube trays and all!

    Kimmie
    mama to 6
    one homemade and 5 adopted

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  6. that food processor will make baby food and then you can put that in the ice cube trays too. that's what I did with the last baby and it made me feel like such a good mama to not feed him processed, over-priced baby food from a jar.

    =)
    Kami Nygren

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