It’s mid July and by this time of  year my herb garden is usually in full force! Sometimes leaving me with question of what to do with all the delectable herbs?

One of my favorite things to do with my abundance of aromatic herbs is make fresh pesto. Its easy, quick and brings an earthy flavor to many dishes in the kitchen. It keeps well in the fridge and is appetizing on any meat, poultry or seafood. It is delicious mixed with any type of warm pasta or mixed with potatoes. It is mouth watering spread on a baguette or a sandwich and is perfect drizzled on grilled vegetables.

Pesto is typically made with fresh basil but I like to toss any herb that I picked out of the garden into my pesto. Such as basil, parsley, rosemary, oregano, thyme and chives. You may even try adding leafy greens like spinach or arugula to your pesto.

Ingredients:

3 and 1/2 cups of fresh herbs

1/4 cup of grated Parmesan cheese

1/2 cup of pine nuts ( you could use walnuts as well)

1/2  cup of olive oil

4 to 6 cloves of garlic

Into the food processor add herbs, cheese, pine nuts, olive oil and garlic. Blend everything until smooth. If you do not have a food processor a blender will work just fine.

  Then spoon into a mason jar. This recipe yields about one half pint size mason jar of pesto. I prefer to store mine in two quarter pint jars, so I can freeze one and keep the other in the fridge to use. You can store in the fridge for up to two weeks or in the freezer for three months. If your going to freeze your pesto just make sure you leave about a half inch gap at the top of the mason jar to give the pesto room to expand and prevent the jar from cracking or breaking.

If you don’t have mason jars to store your pesto in you could also use ice cube trays to freeze it in. I have done this before and it works well.

Each summer I can enough pesto to last me threw the winter months. Pesto is one of those things that you’ll  find your self making time and time again because of how simple and tasty it is! I love having a jar of pesto in the fridge especially when you are short on time and need to get the grub to the table posthaste!

Grow it. Pick it. Cook it. Eat it.

Chantelle