Basil - Storage, Preservation and Pesto

Here’s my low down on basil.

It doesn’t last all season, but the taste of basil is synonymous with summer.  There are lots of different ways to preserve it, and I’m going to share a few here. For starters, when you bring it home in the plastic bags that we sell it in, put it in the fridge.  We find it stores well for the week there.

Basil Varieties

We grow a number of different kinds of Italian basil (and Thai basil as well but that’s not the focus here).  This year we are also trying a lemon basil which we’ll have available as well.  We choose varieties for their tastiness, but also their disease resistance.  Basil is very susceptible to mildew as the nights and mornings get damp with dew as the summer wanes.

Make pesto and freeze it.  

I freeze it in small glass jars.  You can take it out and use it all at once or a tablespoon at a time.  Top it with olive oil to store it in the fridge longer.  Sometimes we freeze it in silicon muffin cups and then pop it into ziplock bags for easy thawing later.  I know that some folks use ice cube trays in a similar way.  Sometimes I go to the work of making a whole pesto mix but very often I just freeze puréed basil and olive oil (and usually garlic scapes too) and then pull that out and make pesto in the fall and winter.  

Now for the pesto.  I’ll offer you two recipes.

Vegan Pesto

2 cups basil (compacted)

3 T seeds or nuts (sunflower seeds, cashews, pine nuts)

3 garlic cloves (or scapes)

2 T nutritional yeast

2 T lemon juice

¼ tsp salt

2-3 T olive oil

Makes about 1 cup pesto

Basil Pesto

2 cups basil (could try with our lemon basil also)

½ cup toasted pine nuts (or sunflower seeds)

2 T lemon juice

1 garlic clove

Salt and pepper

¼ cup olive oil

¼ cup parmesan

Lemon Basil Sauce

1 cup fresh basil

1 T fresh lemon joice

¼ cup olive oil

2 T raw cashews

2 garlic cloves

¼ tsp salt 

Pepper to taste

Enjoy! I'd love to hear which one you prefer and what your variations are - because there's all kinds of options.