Pesto

Ingredients

• fresh basil
• olive oil
• lemon
• garlic
• salt

Directions

Harvest your basil. I cleared out my mother’s crop that was starting to flower today. It yielded a sink full – this is probably 6 fully grown plants, trimmed above the base so they will keep producing.

Pick the leaves off, discarding the stems, and wash in a clean sink full of cold water.

Save any ladybugs that are hiding out in the leaves.

Bring a pot of water to a boil. Blanch the basil by dunking in the boiling water for 20-30 seconds, then remove the leaves to an ice bath.

Squeeze as much water out of the leaves as you can, and leave to dry on some paper towels while you prepare the remaining ingredients.

Pesto normally includes pine nuts and parmesan. Unfortunately, the price of pine nuts made me gasp, and I’m gifting a jar of this pesto to a friend who is vegan, so I left both the pine nuts and parmesan out.

Roughly chop the garlic and slice your lemons in half.

In a blender or food processor, combine 1/2 cup of packed basil with 1 cup of olive oil. Add one clove of roughly chopped garlic, the juice of half a lemon, and 1 tsp. of salt. Blend. My harvest produced about 20 oz. of pesto today. With pesto though, a little goes a long way!

Serve over pasta or rice. Drizzle over toast or poached eggs. Marinate chicken or fish.

Wine Pairing Suggestion

Josh Cellars Prosecco Rosé