I know- it's a miracle, right? I didn't kill a single one of my herbs, and they seem to be flourishing, if I do say so myself! I had time this weekend to sit down and 'put up' my first harvest. I started with the chives:
In retrospect, I realize that the picture of the harvest next to the shorn plant is a little morbid... sorry about that.After the chives, it was onto the basil. First, I would just like to reiterate how pretty this plant became.
I know- it's a tad weird how proud I am of these three little herbs...After I snipped the bigger leaves, I took the following ingredients and got to work. Can you guess where I'm going with this?
Before I go on, I just have to mention this. It makes peeling garlic SO simple... just insert the clove, role for a second or two, and out pops your peeled garlic!
But I digress... back to the task at hand- PESTO!
You may notice that I have a dainty little food processor. It's really cute, but it's capacity means that I have to make the original recipe in batches. First, I ground up the basil leaves.
Then I slowly added the olive oil.
Then I added the pine nuts, parmesan, and garlic...
It was almost done!
And there you are... homemade pesto!
I was able to make 4 containers of pesto- 3 for the freezer and one for the fridge.
Here's the recipe, as created by my awesome parents.HOMEMADE PESTOPesto is delicious in so many ways- on pasta or sandwiches... but in my family we like it on pizza. It only takes a few simple ingredients to make a tasty dish.
Ingredients:
2 C loosely packed Basil leaves
1/3 C Olive Oil
2-3 cloves of garlic
1/2 C Grated Parmesan Cheese
2 T Pine Nuts
Directions:
Chop Basil in food processor until smooth. Slowly add oil and blend. Then add cheese, nuts, and garlic. Blend until smooth.
Keep two weeks in fridge or put into freezer for up to one year.
Just spread a container of pesto on a Boboli, add mozzerella, tomatoes, and bake according to the instructions on the package.
Yum, right?
As you can tell, I had a very fun weekend... I hope yours was the same!
