For the past few years, our basil has been a bust. Perhaps the very dry summer we had last season was not to its liking, or maybe there was a new fungus that ran rampant, but every variety we planted withered and died. Happily, this year has brought an abundance of it, all hale and hearty. Which means we've been eating a lot of pesto -- not exactly a hardship! And I must say it's been delicious, whether used in a traditional way on top of gnocchi, or to liven up some spiralized zucchini. And at this point in the season, finding a new way to eat zucchini is a necessity!
But as gluttonous as Mr. Mulch and I are, we still have a surplus of basil. So yesterday, it was time for basil wrangling. Fortunately, pesto freezes well, so even though basil is particularly fragile and hard to keep for long, you can preserve this taste of summer easily. In the past, I've frozen half-made pesto, blending only the garlic, basil, and olive oil -- thinking that perhaps the cheese and nuts won't take to the process. But after some research, it appears that the full recipe can tolerate freezing, so this year I decided to try that. Even at that, putting up basil is a whole lot easier and quicker than canning tomatoes or pickling veggies! No steaming up the kitchen with boiling water, sterilizing jars, or fishing them out of their bath. It's as simple as 1,2,3!
And Presto! Pesto goes into the freezer until the dead of winter when we need a reminder of summer warmth.
Of course, I can't just leave things alone all quick and simple, can I? No, since this went so fast, I had all that time left over... maybe I should try something a bit more complicated... oh, why not? For my next trick, a dish that helped deal with the overabundance of tomatoes we are also enjoying: Granny's Tomato Tart. Not my granny, but a recipe I found years ago in the NYTimes (link here) and haven't made since I first saw it in 2009. I used beefsteak, yellow brandywine, and green zebra tomatoes and it was every bit as good as I remembered...
Maybe I'll make another one, and this time, put some basil on top of it... bet that would be good, too!