Pesto Fest 2011

In June, I planted two basil plants in anticipation of making enough pesto to last through the winter. Come January, there's nothing like defrosting some basil pesto and mixing it in with pasta and closing your eyes and breathing in the smell of late, late summer. Then in July, I panicked. My basil plants weren't getting very big. What if I didn't have enough to make pesto? What if one...gasp!...died??? So I planted another one.

 Silly me.

A summer's worth of watering and pampering and fretting was worth it. I had piles and piles of basil for pesto making, which I did all day Saturday. The whole house was fragrant with it. I'm pretty sure I was fragrant with it, too. Even after going for a long run and taking a wonderfully steamy bath, I could smell it in my hair and on the skin of my hands. (The people I sat next to at the birthday party I went to that night were probably wondering if they've changed the formulation of Chanel No.5 to include some kind of...herbals...)

Olive oil + garlic + Parmesan cheese + basil = magic.

(I had to leave out the pine nuts 

because of my very pesky allergies.)

Two bottles of olive oil drained, most of the garlic used up,

only a few loose little basil leaves lingering on the counter.

And one huge vat of pesto.

I left it in the fridge for a day or so to let the flavors mingle, and then I dropped it in "blobs" onto waxed paper on cookie sheets and froze it to store in zippered freezer bags. Ah, summer in a bag.

(Note: Don't try this at home without warning those you live with that there's pesto in the freezer. My Dad opened the massive chest freezer in the garage to see pesto freezing in "blobs" on cookie sheets and couldn't figure out why Mom was freezing bug poop...)