The Pesto Project

This is my mom's little herb garden, which supplies everything she needs for making her two favorite summer treats ... bruschetta and mojitos!


Last year we procrastinated and our basil plant froze and died, but we didn't want that to happen this year. We've had some pretty cold nights here in Green Bay lately, which have made some of the leaves start turning brown already.


With a serious cold front moving in tonight, Mom decided it was time to harvest the basil and turn it into pesto.


Look at us now, staging the ingredients just like those fancy shmancy cooking blogs! But really, all you need is fresh basil leaves, pine nuts, garlic, EVOO and parmesan cheese. Oh, and a food processor. Dad bought this one a few years ago when he started mass-producing salsa and it works great for this project. Note: the bowl of basil above was just for the first batch. You want about 1/3 cup pine nuts for every 2 cups of packed basil leaves, with garlic, oil and cheese added to taste. Our plant produced enough for three batches of pesto this year!


Here you have the finished product! Mom used half of the batch on top to make a fresh tomato and mozzarella pizza today and the remainder will go in a pasta dish yet this week. The two containers below look a little greener because they went into the freezer for use later, so the parmesan cheese was left out. When the pesto is thawed you simply shred some cheese and add it in fresh. And you can bet I'll be there when that happens ... I can smell cheese from anywhere in the house!