Jul 16

Jul 16 7.16.13 Arugula and Basil Pesto

After some recent traveling, we returned home to find that while we were away, our garden had been doing some serious growing. In one week, I swear our garden went from being a cute little vegetable patch to something akin to the amazon rainforest. I couldn’t believe it! Most of the herbs were in danger of some serious bolting (bye bye cilantro), but I think I was able to salvage most of them, after quite a large herb harvest. I have a surplus of pretty much everything, which I’ve arranged in this decorative vase until I can come up with a use for them. Makes a nice little centerpiece (and tasty too).

Of all of my herbs, the ones that went the craziest were the basil and the arugula. Seriously, I was up to my ears in the stuff, so it seemed that some pesto making was in order. Let me just say that I LOVE pesto and will put in on anything and everything. Sandwiches - check, salad dressings - check, stirred into soup, on top of grilled meat, I mean really, the possibilities are endless. And let’s be honest, the possibilities for making pesto are endless too. You have too much lemon balm you say? Make it into pesto (great on fish). Too many garlic scapes or kale in your CSA? Make some pesto, you won’t regret it. As I mentioned, I had a plethora of basil and arugula, so that’s what I used here, but feel free to sub whatever you have lying around for the greens here.

Note: for some inexplicable reason, I’m not a huge fan of pine nuts (please don’t hold it against me), so I left them out of this recipe. BUT, for all you pine nut lovers out there, never fear! You can easily add about ¼ c pine nuts (or almonds, or walnuts, or whatever you have handy) to this recipe and get your pine nut fix.