Pesto

I had to prune back the basil plants to let the peppers get some sun... which resulted in mass quantities of basil leaves!

Pesto recipe (Adapted from an Ina Garten recipe)

16 cups of basil leaves, loosely packed

4 heads of local garlic

1 cup pine nuts

1/2 cup walnuts

2 tsp salt

2 tsp fresh ground pepper

3 cups olive oil

(2 cups parmasan cheese)

Peel garlic, then process in the food processor with pine nuts and walnuts. Add basil, salt, and pepper, process until smooth. Add in olive oil in a steady stream, while running the processor. If you plant to freeze, leave out the cheese (add it later when you eat it!).

Store in the fridge with a layer of oil on top for up to a week. Or freeze it! Last year I did the ice cube-tray thing... but I have so much this year, and I hated trying to get the pesto-smell out of the ice cube trays (if I do this again, I will try lining with plastic wrap, but this sounds so fussy...).

Lazy freezing method... freeze in ziplocs, in flat, thin slabs. Break off a piece of the slab when you want to use it. So far so good... the oil in the pesto prevents it from freezing too solidly!