The delicious flavour we associate with pesto comes from basil, a tender herb that does not thrive in cool weather. The season for making fresh pesto is relatively short here in Canada. No worries. In mid to late summer, you can harvest lots of basil and make a pesto base that freezes beautifully.
How to Harvest Your Basil
Basil will keep producing happily until fall if you know how to pick it. Each plant starts out with a main stem. For your first harvest, pick sprigs with six to ten leaves at the top of the stem. This will be very tender growth — you can use the leaves and the stems. Try to pinch back to just above a node where you can see tiny new leaves. In a short time this node will produce two stems. When they are big enough, pinch out the tops of those stems. With every harvest, your plant will get bushier and grow more leaves. Once you have your year's supply of basil, you can let the flower buds form, but don't do it too soon because the quality of the leaves will deteriorate as soon as seed producing begins.
How to Make a Pesto Base
Don't be intimidated. This is so easy. You just need 4 cups of basil leaves and tips, ½ cup of organic extra virgin olive oil, a clove or two of garlic and ¼ teaspoon sea salt or Himalayan salt.
Collect four cups of fresh basil sprigs. Rinse and spin them out well in a salad spinner, then put them on a dish towel and firmly pat them dry.
Lightly chop the basil, discarding any stems that seem a bit tough. This will result in about two cups of cut basil. Peel and mince the garlic cloves. Process all this in the food processor until finely chopped, then add the salt and olive oil. Process again, scraping the sides as needed, until you like the texture. There's your base.
Use a food processor for a large batch, or a straight sided canning jar and a hand held immersion blender for a smaller amount. Adjust the quantities according to the amount of basil you have.
What About Pine Nuts and Cheese?
Yes, I know that traditional pesto contains pine nuts and grated hard Italian cheese such as Parmesan. We're primarily a dairy free household so I don't use the cheese, but if I did, I would add it just before serving the pesto, not at this stage.
As for pine nuts, have you seen the price? Anyway, they are not local to us. I substitute chopped roasted pumpkin seeds. You can add them to the food processor right at the end and chop them that way, or add them to the base after you thaw it. Some people use walnuts instead which also sounds tasty. Just keep in mind that the nuts should be a little chunky, not pureed.
You can keep fresh pesto for a few days. Put it in a narrow jar, add a thin layer of olive oil to keep the basil from going dark, cover the jar, and store it in the fridge.
How to Freeze Your Pesto Base
I used to think I was clever to freeze my pesto in ice cube trays so I could take out the exact amount I needed. But pesto really clings. Happily I've found a method that eliminates the struggle to get the green off the ice cube trays.
Line a small baking tray or two with parchment paper. I like to use my flexible rectangular baking dish storage lids for this. Spread the pesto base in a thin layer about a centimetre thick. Use a butter knife to score a grid into it and freeze overnight. Next morning, lift the parchment paper off the tray and break up the frozen pesto directly into a labelled freezer bag. Work quickly so the chunks don't have a chance to start thawing. Get it back in the freezer as fast as you can.
Now you have delicious homemade pesto whenever you want it.
This is one of my favourite ways to use my pesto base. Did I mention that it's super easy?
Pesto & Greens Cream Sauce Template
As well as pesto base, there are always blanched greens in our freezer – nettles, wild amaranth, lambsquarters and New Zealand spinach. Use any cooked leafy greens that you enjoy.
Use one to two cups of cooked greens and about a quarter cup of pesto base, more or less to your taste. Let these thaw at room temperature for an hour or two.
Pour a can of coconut milk and the thawed pesto base into your blender. Add salt and pepper to taste. Pulse to incorporate the pesto, then add the green vegetables. Now is also the time to add some pumpkin seeds if you want them. Pulse a few times, just enough that the sauce is speckled with green. Heat.
Serve with pasta, zoodles, broccoli, chicken or seafood.
Craving the Parmesan? Stir some into the sauce or grate it over the finished meal.
One last thought. If you don't have a lot of basil, you can make pesto using other fresh greens such as tender young dandelion leaves, baby kale, arugula or even garlic scapes. Just be sure to add at least a half a cup of fresh basil to the mixture for that all important flavour.
