Pesto

We’ve made pesto from our garden basil for maybe 20 years now. Always a slightly different mix of nuts, cheese, garlic, oil and basil. Sometimes we use the classic: pine nuts, sometimes walnuts. Sometimes only parmesan cheese, sometimes cheese mixtures.

For this batch the recipe was:
2 cups of pecans
2 cups of walnuts
2 heads of garlic
10 oz grated cheese blend: grana padano, asiago, pecorino, Romano, provolone
5 oz grated parmesan
1 liter extra virgin olive oil
Salt to taste: maybe 2-3 Tbs
1 pile of basil

This recipe made 3 quarts of pesto. It’s a thick paste that we freeze in baggies or ice cube trays and slice off chucks as we need it. To serve, we dilute with warm water (pasta water) and olive oil. It keeps fine in the freezer until next year’s basil comes in.

Ocimum basilicum

Skippy's vegetable recipes