This is the second time this spring I've been able to harvest a bunch of basil from my garden and make a batch of pesto.

I planted basil with my tomatoes back in early April, which is supposed to help keep pests from the tomato plants, and offers the benefit of fresh basil all spring, summer, and fall. Lots of people add basil to their tomatoes when they can them, too.







Pesto (for the few who may not know) is a blend of fresh basil; ground, toasted, pine nuts; grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese; crushed garlic; salt; pepper; butter; and EVOO. Great on pasta.

Cool thing about basil is, when you harvest it, you can cut it nearly down to the base, and in just a few weeks, it's back to where it was, ready for another harvest.

Tomatoes are coming in nice, too. The tomato plants are about six feet tall, now. I picked the first tomato this morning. Dozens of them are on the vine at various stages of development.

Looks great. We make pesto most years from ours and a neighbors garden. Once made, we put it in ice trays to freeze. Once frozen the cubes go into freezer bags are used most of the year. We love that stuff.

I freeze mine, too. Cool idea with the ice treys.

I’ve made it with basil, parsley and ramps (separately). Definitely great on pasta.

We're still making pesto up here with spring ramplings and basil.

We dabble

Taken the idea literally.

What do you do with it?
Just stir it into noodles?

It's good on grilled meats, bread, vegetables, etc. Nice bright flavor with the smoothness of the olive oil/nut fat.

We float a 1/4 inch of olive oil on the top of underfilled jars and they freeze beautifully.

Oxygen makes it brown, keep it under oil and it will retain its bright green. Doesn't change the flavor, just the color.

I like the ice cube idea, will try that when ours gets big enough

Yep.

I tried the Costco brand of their Basil Pesto yesterday. Not bad