Basil

One cannot have too much pesto. It serves so many purposes. Pasta sauce. Crostini spread. I have even used it as a hot dog condiment. So, it should follow that one cannot have too much basil. But I grow close to a hundred basil plants each year. So unless I am prepared to make pesto for an extended period, I had better come up with a way to deal with that much basil.

I have heard that one can put basil in a blender, add water, liquefy and pour into ice cube trays. I could have cubes of frozen fresh basil to drop into sauces and soups the whole year round. It sounded so easy that I began, without checking any reference as to how to do this. Where would the fun be in that?

For batch one I placed about 2 cups packed basil leaves in the blender, added 2 cups water and pushed the button. It was that easy. I went to pour the results into an ice cube tray and found it was just a wee bit too much for a single tray, and not near enough for two.

Back to the beginning. Two cups basil leaves and this time, three cups of water. Liquefy and voilà, green goo. Without making too big a mess, I managed to get most of the aromatic liquid into the ice cube trays. Comfortably.

After the cubes are frozen, I'll put them into an airtight container and have a reason to make soup this winter.

Bon appétit!