Recipe for Homemade Pesto

Try this simple recipe for making homemade pesto using the freshest basil available from your own garden or the farmers market.


Homemade Pesto

2 cups fresh basil leaves
1/2 cup parsley leaves
3 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
1/3 cup chopped walnuts (may substitute pine nuts) or omit if allergic to nuts
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese

In a food processor, combine the basil and parsley leaves, chopped garlic and walnuts. Process for a few seconds. Then drizzle in the olive oil through the feed tube with the processor running until combined. Add in the Parmesan cheese and process for another second or two.

Serve over hot or cold cooked pasta, as a spread on crackers or bread, or as a topping for baked potatoes.

To freeze Pesto Sauce, fill ice cube tray or small muffin tin with the pesto and after frozen, remove and store in plastic bags in the freezer. When making pesto to freeze, omit the cheese and add in when thawed and ready to serve.

Just formed a Culinary Club

A like-minded group of foodie friends and neighbors recently formed a Culinary Club to share our experiences and knowledge about the wonderful world of food. The group held its first cooking demonstration on "Cooking With Herbs". To test how well the foodies knew their herbs, everyone tried to guess the contents of small individual cups of snipped parsley, basil, rosemary, mint and thyme. That was tricky!

Then the demonstrations began which included a Dill Batter Bread, Tuna Salad with Dill, Marinated Shrimp on Rosemary Skewers, along with Caprese Mozzarella Salad and Homemade Pesto using fresh basil. Sampling the tasty dishes topped off the meeting and left everyone wanting more.

Rain is gone for now

The flooding rains are gone for now and there was no local damage in my area of northern Georgia. But the rains did a number on my fresh basil, tomatoes and cucumbers.

So it's time to try new plantings of herbs for the fall season especially sage, chives, dill, mint and thyme. Since the basil is done, I'll refill my large terra-cotta herb planter with all the new herb plantings.

Every time I walk past the rosemary bush, I love to draw my fingers through the plant and inhale the fragrance.

Those tomatoes just keep coming on strong. What a lovely dilemma to have! So I've been busy making fresh salsa and many, many Caprese salads. Especially since there is so much basil as well.

Take advantage of the fresh produce from your garden while it lasts. Nothing tastes better than the veggies you pick in your own garden. And did you notice something else? These tomatoes actually have all the aroma and all the flavor a tomato should have, unlike so many store-bought tomatoes that don't have the luxury of hanging out until the peak of ripeness beckons from the vine.

For those of you not lucky enough to grow your own, search out the nearest farmers market or even a roadside stand with baskets of ripe, red tomatoes. Then savor the flavor as you enjoy one of the best fruits of the farm.

Summertime

Wow! It is already mid summer and I've been busy in the small garden outside my library window. So far the harvest has been tasty, vine-ripened tomatoes, a special Greek type of cucumber and loads of basil, mint, parsley and thyme.

All those fresh tomatoes and basil mean summer meals with my favorite Caprese Salad. To make this delicious salad, round up the best,full-of-flavor summer tomatoes you can find and a handful of green, leafy Italian basil, along with a big ball of soft, Buffalo mozzarella. (This isn't the traditional mozzarella used in pizza making. This mozzarella is soft and white and usually comes packaged in a cup filled with a salty brine to keep it fresh longer.)

To make the salad, slice one or two of the juicy, meaty tomatoes on a plate. Add a sprinkling of sea salt. Then top each tomato slice with a slice of the Buffalo mozzarella. (Hint: use a wire cheese slicer or a piece of unwaxed floss or thread to easily cut the cheese into slices.)

Then slide a few leaves of fresh basil between the tomato and the mozzarella and continue around the plate. Add another sprinkling of sea salt and ground, black pepper. Drizzle the salad with extra virgin olive oil and dashes of white or dark balsamic vinegar to taste. Serve with crusty bread.