Last of the Basil

With frosty nights this week, Gary quickly harvested the last of my basil. This is two plants and with pinching all season long, they had grown quite tall. I got a huge pot full of basil leaves from these plants. I grew the basil in the pepper raised bin and the peppers shaded the basil and helped with a long and prolific harvest season.

There was enough basil to make four batches of pesto (above is one batch). I like my pesto rough chopped so I hand chopped the ingredients. First I chop the basil chiffonade style and added olive oil to keep it from browning. To further prevent oxidation of the leaves you can add a dash of rice wine vinegar or a small amount of lemon juice. Next I chopped very fine a generous amount of garlic.

Then I chopped pine nuts (walnuts can be substituted) and grated some parmesan cheese. I cooked gluten free noodles al dente, added the pesto, then tossed in the chopped pine nuts and parmesan. If you plan to freeze the pesto, leave out the nuts and parmesan and add them when you use the pesto. As I'm typing this I'm thinking I should make a pesto, fresh tomato, goat or feta cheese pizza. Thanks for reading and for all your comments.