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June 6th, 2009
Just look at how much the herbs in the pot my mom and dad gave me for Mother's Day have grown!
This is the pot on Mother's Day:
And this is the pot today:
So... I really needed to harvest pretty much all that basil because it's getting to where it'll start to flower soon and it's not good after it flowers. I was trying to think what I could do with that much basil and there's pretty much only one thing: make pesto.
My favorite thing using pesto, is pizza. I spread pesto on a pizza crust, then top with just a light sprinkle of shredded mozzarella (just enough so it's cheesy) and then lay on slices of fresh tomato and sliced fresh mushrooms.
I bought the rest of the ingredients for pesto: pine nuts, parmesan cheese, olive oil, garlic. And a pizza crust. I wish I could say I made the crust, but I'm not much of achemist baker, so I generally buy mine. However, I did find the kind I like best... a brick-oven style thin crust. YUM!
I came home and harvested and washed all the basil.
Then I put about six small cloves of garlic, the entire 4.5 oz. bag of pine nuts, all the basil and the entire 6 oz. tub of grated parmesan into my food processor. As it processed, I drizzled in some extra virgin olive oil. Not sure exactly how much oil, but it's easy to tell how much you need... just keep drizzling until the mixture is moistened enough to spread.
Look at how gorgeously bright it is... I didn't need to add any seasonings, the cheese made it plenty salty. It's bright and fresh, but creamy and nutty... super delicious!
Here it is painted on my brick-oven style thin crust:
Now it's all dressed and ready for the oven... those are my mom's homegrown tomatoes on there, too:
Just out of the oven:
And now, cut and ready for my pie-hole!
The crust is super crisp and tasty, the pesto is bright, herby, salty and creamy, the cheese is gooey and baking the tomatoes and mushrooms on top of the pizza concentrates their flavor so the tomato gets super rich and tangy and the mushrooms earthy and meaty. The combination of all these flavors on the pizza is just heavenly. And I love that it's vegetarian and extremely nutritious. Makes me not feel so bad about eating more than two pieces!
This is the pot on Mother's Day:
And this is the pot today:
So... I really needed to harvest pretty much all that basil because it's getting to where it'll start to flower soon and it's not good after it flowers. I was trying to think what I could do with that much basil and there's pretty much only one thing: make pesto.
My favorite thing using pesto, is pizza. I spread pesto on a pizza crust, then top with just a light sprinkle of shredded mozzarella (just enough so it's cheesy) and then lay on slices of fresh tomato and sliced fresh mushrooms.
I bought the rest of the ingredients for pesto: pine nuts, parmesan cheese, olive oil, garlic. And a pizza crust. I wish I could say I made the crust, but I'm not much of a
I came home and harvested and washed all the basil.
Then I put about six small cloves of garlic, the entire 4.5 oz. bag of pine nuts, all the basil and the entire 6 oz. tub of grated parmesan into my food processor. As it processed, I drizzled in some extra virgin olive oil. Not sure exactly how much oil, but it's easy to tell how much you need... just keep drizzling until the mixture is moistened enough to spread.
Look at how gorgeously bright it is... I didn't need to add any seasonings, the cheese made it plenty salty. It's bright and fresh, but creamy and nutty... super delicious!
Here it is painted on my brick-oven style thin crust:
Now it's all dressed and ready for the oven... those are my mom's homegrown tomatoes on there, too:
Just out of the oven:
And now, cut and ready for my pie-hole!
The crust is super crisp and tasty, the pesto is bright, herby, salty and creamy, the cheese is gooey and baking the tomatoes and mushrooms on top of the pizza concentrates their flavor so the tomato gets super rich and tangy and the mushrooms earthy and meaty. The combination of all these flavors on the pizza is just heavenly. And I love that it's vegetarian and extremely nutritious. Makes me not feel so bad about eating more than two pieces!
