Buffalo Rising Online

Apr 20th 2007, 7:09am By L Abbott

What would an Italian dish (or a garden) be without fresh basil? Basil is so aromatic and so lovely in the garden that I grow it every year. The dried version never comes close to the smell and flavor of fresh basil.

There are hundreds of recipes available for pesto, but the basic ingredients are always the same: fresh basil leaves, olive oil, fresh garlic, lightly toasted pine nuts, grated hard cheese--like Parmesan or Romano--and a bit of salt to taste.

For the best pesto, consider growing your own basil. If you have never grown fresh basil in the past, I encourage everyone to give it a try this year. It is a fantastic plant to grow in a pot, easy to take care of, and will do great on a deck or porch. So you apartment and condo dwellers without a yard, this plant is especially good for you!

Below is a simple recipe for pesto followed by some basic gardening tips to grow your own basil.

To Make Pesto:
3 cups fresh basil, loosely packed, stems removed - 3 tbsp pine nuts, lightly toasted in the oven or dry pan - 2 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped or smashed - 1/2 cup grated Parmesan or Romano - 1/2 extra virgin oil - salt to taste

Place the pine nuts and garlic in a food processor and pulse until the mixture is finely ground. Add about half of the olive oil and a handful of basil. Process until the leaves are thoroughly incorporated. With the food processor running, add more basil through the feed tube, a handful at a time, until all the basil is incorporated and the mixture is smooth.

Pesto will keep, refrigerated, for one or two weeks, or you can freeze it for a few months and use it at a later date. Although it won’t be bright green after being frozen, don’t fret - it will taste the same. A great, time saving idea is to fill an ice cube tray with the pesto, freeze, and then use one cube at a time for sauces, marinades and dips. You can dip some fresh bread in pesto or use it to flavor chicken before grilling or use it as a salad dressing or add it to tomato sauce. The uses are endless.

A good tip: add a little fresh spinach to give your pesto an extra bright green color. You may add some different herbs to the basil, such as parsley, cilantro, or mint to give your pesto a little different flavor, and you can also substitute the walnuts for pine nuts.

To Grow Basil:
Basil loves lots of sunshine…the more the better. It grows easily in a window with good amounts of sun or outside in either a pot or the ground and is a good herb to start from seed. Follow the package directions if you start from seeds and remember to always start with good soil.

If you prefer to start with plants versus starting from seed, Guercio’s or Wegmans carry basil plants that are grown locally. Whether you chose to start with seeds or with a already started plant, there are quite a few varieties out there, including Lemon Basil, Lime scented Basil, Purple Basil, Thai Basil and the traditional Italian “pesto” or Salad Leaf Basil.

I find the large leafed, traditional basil (Ocimum Basilicum) is best for most recipes but, for you foodies out there, you may want to try another variety this summer.

Plant basil outside when the nighttime temperatures are at least 50 degrees. Basil does not like to be cold, nor does it like to be watered at night. Water basil in the early part of the day so that it has time to dry out a little bit. Basil is an annual, so you will only get one growing season out each plant. The good news is that is it is readily available at most grocery stores these days.

Later in the summer basil will start to produce flowers at the top of the plant. Keep the flowers pinched off at the top in order for the plant to keep producing leaves.

You can eat the leaves from your basil plant at any time of the summer, but take them from the top of the plant rather than the bottom. Don’t worry, it will keep growing and get bigger and bushier every time you cut some leaves off.