The Eleanor

I’ve been in DC (Zone 7a!) for a little over a year, and I cannot get over how much easier it is to garden here than in Dallas. “Of course it’s easier!” I tell myself, but I am still amazed at how plants thrive here with little attention compared to my garden in Zone 8. So starting off this Spring, we planted a ton of herbs and flowers to get a sense for what sort of conditions we were going to deal with. 

And that brings me to my garden pesto recipe… because after buying one (1!!) basil plant, splitting it, propagating it, and pruning it, we had So. Much. Basil. I was chopping it up and putting it on everything and in everything all Summer long. But it was starting to flower and go to seed, so I decided to cut it all back and make a big batch of pesto.

I did something similar last summer, so I used the same rule of thumb for the recipe, along with a little inspiration from Samin Nosrat’s pesto recipe and some experimenting with the ingredients in my kitchen.

The final product? Fresh and delicious! The recipe I used below:

Recipe

Ingredients

• ½ cup toasted pine nuts

• 1 cup of olive oil

• 4 cups of fresh basil, tightly packed

• 6 garlic cloves

• 2 cups of freshly ground parmigiano reggiano

• Salt to taste

• Red pepper flakes (optional)

Directions

• Toast the pine nuts lightly until golden brown (be careful, they burn quickly!)
• Put pine nuts into food processor and blend until a smooth, sand-like texture
• Scraping the site of the food processor, add in garlic cloves
• Continue processing, drizzling about half of the olive oil in until a pasty consistency
• Roughly chop the basil leaves, so they are broken down in size and can fit into the food processor. (Also note that over-blending the basil can turn it brown more quickly, so the rough chop beforehand is important!)
• Add basil to the food processor and pulse lightly, drizzling in the rest of the olive oil. 
• When basil is fully mixed in to the pine nut/garlic mix, pour pesto base into a larger glass bowl.
• Fold in the freshly-ground parmgiano reggiano, salt, and red pepper flakes (if using). 

Taste the sauce and adjust salt and red pepper accordingly.

Finished Product

What I like to use my pesto for:

• Pasta, of course!
• Fresh, homemade pizza
• Pesto chicken
• Toast with cottage cheese and tomato slices
• White beans

And now, after having cut back all my basil, and with plenty of rain and heat, I have another full harvest. I may make another round of pesto and freeze it in ice cube trays for the winter (a successful experiment I did last Summer!) or try something new. Googles: “what to make with 4 cups of fresh basil” . . .