Pesto (for freezing, possibly blasphemous)
Here's a recipe for pesto to freeze that I got from my shepherd friend tonight. My few (4) basil plants have grown to a size to rival a California redwood, so I need something to do with it. They must like rain. Thought the recipe might appeal to some of you. I'm not a pesto expert, so don't blast me if it's a blasphemous recipe :-)
To fill one ice tray for freezing:
3 cups packed fresh basil leaves
2 lg garlic cloves
1/2 cup pine nuts or walnuts or almonds or combo of all
3/4 cup packed fresh parsley
3/4 cup grated parmesan
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 melted butter
Salt to taste if desired
Smash all into a blender and battle to get to a rough paste. Once at rough paste stage, fill ice tray and place in freezer. After frozen, slip knife around edges to free and dump into a freezer bag.
Of course, I had to fiddle with the recipe. First I didn't have any parsley, so I substituted more basil. Then I had a little basil left over, so I added that. There were a few more cloves of garlic left, so they got added. Then it seemed to need a bit more olive oil. Then there was this inch chunk of parmesan, (oops, I only had romano) romano left over, so it got grated and added. Then I saw the bottle of lemon juice and thought a splash of that would be great. And then there was this half stick of butter left over, so it got added.
It still tasted great and filled 2 ice trays instead of 1.
Jola Gayle