This is the time of year when vegetable and herb gardens are exploding. Everywhere I turn someone is offering me gorgeous tomatoes but I can only use so many as I’m not canning or freezing.
I did say ‘yes’ to a large bunch of fresh basil from Lou and Lisa R a few weeks ago. Their large home garden was exploding and they insisted that we come to take some basil off their hands. Ed and I were happy to comply. The pile of basil you see here came from three stuffed reusable grocery bags.
They shared Lou’s mother’s (Irma R) basil pesto recipe and tips for freezing it. As with many recipes, this is more of a suggestion than something that must be strictly followed. Having said that, don’t skip the butter (something new to me) or decrease the amount of olive oil. Both contribute to making a wonderfully smooth and balanced pesto.
I’ve always frozen pesto in small containers, but this time I used ice cube trays (per Lisa’s suggestion). I let it freeze overnight and then popped out the cubes into freezer safe bags. The beauty of this technique is that you use what you need.
I have been making and freezing basil pesto for years. The big difference between my old standby recipe and this one is when to add the cheese. I’ve been converted – don’t add the cheese before you freeze the pesto. Instead add it when you are using the pesto. Not only is the color of the pesto a far more vibrant and inviting green, it is also more versatile as you can add as much cheese as you want. (There’s no cheese in the photo below.)
I recommend taking out the amount of pesto I need a few hours prior to cooking and leave it at room temperature to thaw. You can use this pesto on pasta, chicken, fish, grilled vegetables, steamed or roasted potatoes or sliced tomatoes. It also makes a great ingredient in soups – you can use the cubes right from the freezer. This is a great way to get some summer green in the middle of a cold winter.
| Freezer Basil Pesto | | Print |
- 4 cups packed basil, cleaned and dried (see Notes)
- 1 large garlic clove
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
- 25 pine nuts, toasted
- 1 cup extra virgin olive oil
- Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
- ~ ¼ cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese (optional)
- Add half of the basil, garlic, butter, pine nuts and olive oil to a food processor, blender or Vitamix. Pulse until well blended. Add the remaining basil and season with Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper.
- Transfer the pesto to small containers or ice cube trays and freeze. If you use ice cube trays, you can pop the pesto out of the trays and store in freezer safe bags the next day (this makes it easier for freezer storage).
- When ready to serve, remove pesto from the freezer and let it sit at room temperature for a few hours to thaw.
- Depending how you are using the pesto, add as much grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese to it as you need.
* Depending on how you like your pesto, you can use half basil and half Italian flat leaf parsley.
* If you’re serving the pesto immediately, add the Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese to the pesto and blend.
I’ve been making and freezing a lot of pesto, too. The basil was good this year. I love the tip about freezing and adding the cheese later. But do you really count out 25 pine nuts? I use a similar recipe and about 1/3 cup pine nuts.
Susie – I’m glad to hear that you had a good crop of basil this year! Yes, I did count out the pine nuts. Our friends actually recommended 15 pine nuts but I added some more. It was definitly less than my smallest (1/8 cup) measuring cup!
This is great! Our basil plants are booming and we’ve been struggling to keep up. This is just the solution!
Spenser – Glad I could help!