Freezing Pesto

I harvested most of my basil this week and made pesto to freeze, plus I also froze some chopped in ice cube trays. I decided to freeze it in these small 1/2 cup jelly jars (yes, they are freezer safe).



8 cups basil leaves
1 cup pine nuts (or chopped walnuts)
8 cloves garlic
2 cups grated Parmesan cheese
1 cup extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)
2 Tbs lemon juice

My procedure...
I blanched the basil leaves first. Just dipped them in boiling water (15 seconds max) and then shocked them in ice water. Drained them and spun them in my salad spinner to remove most of the water.

Add to food processor along with remaining ingredients and pulse until it's as smooth as you like. I got 9 jars from the above ingredients. I left 1/2" head space to allow for expansion. I was thinking about adding a thin layer of EVOO after they froze, but I didn't have enough, but I will do that later after I go buy some. I was thinking it would help prevent freezer burn on top of the pesto.

I know a lot of people recommend not adding the cheese, but I decided to try it. I used regular old Kraft brand because it's available and cheap. After researching freezing pesto via Google, most folks do include it. Anyhoo...I thought that I could always add freshly grated Parm whenever I use it -- can never have too much Parmesan!

Besides pasta, my favorite way to use pesto it to cut a Roma tomato in half, remove most of the seeds, top with pesto and broil until toasty brown. That was/is my favorite recipe from the South Beach Diet book. I was responsible for this obsession with pesto.

pattipan

Wow Patty you are making me hungery.

OK, just froze 3 baggies of pesto!  My brothers recipe.  Not sure where I should do the recipe?

A whole bunch (8c) of basil leaves, I also added some dill and cilantro because.
Walnuts ( or pine nuts—i had walnuts)
Parmesan
Garlic
EVOO
Salt

Whir the whole bunch into a blur.  My standard blender made me mad.  Eventually it got done, but this isn’t the way to do this.

Christmas list?  Food processor!

Can’t wait to have delicious fresh basil pesto in December.  Or February!