Tomatoes and Basil

I've been overwhelmed with tomatoes and basil lately but to clarify, I don't necessarily consider that to be a bad thing. I've been looking at recommendations for tomato sauce they all say to remove the skin and seed the tomatoes before making sauce but frankly, that sounds like a waste of time and nutrients to me.

My basil is still going strong and I've also got some fresh oregano out in the garden and I want to preserve those flavors of summer for the long winter ahead. I've got pesto in the freezer as well as some chopped basil I've frozen in water in ice cube trays to see if it holds up for future use.

I have only a few tomato plants so I pick them every few days but I like to have enough tomatoes to make the processing time worthwhile so I toss the whole tomatoes in the freezer until I have enough to make a good sized batch of sauce. And why make plain old tomato sauce when I can make marinara sauce and derivations of marinara instead? That saves work when I need a quick dinner.


Tomato, Basil, and Summer Squash Sauce

2 medium onions, diced
4 large cloves garlic, minced
Olive oil for sauteing
Approximately 10 good sized tomatoes, diced large, centers removed
3 small summer squashes, diced
1 large bunch of basil, washed and removed from stems
handful of fresh oregano, washed and removed from stems
Salt
Pepper
Cayenne Pepper

Saute the onions and garlic in olive oil. Add squash and saute for a few minutes. Add tomatoes, salt, and pepper and cook until the sauce is to the desired consistency at medium heat stirring frequently. Remove from heat, add the fresh herbs and cayenne, then puree the sauce (I use an immersion blender).

I'm hoping this will freeze well and not lose it's fresh herb flavors over time. The fresh sauce is very good. I bet it would make a spectacular lasagna.

Barley Salad Version Two

I love barley and there is a salad a like a lot but I wondered if I could make something I liked as much if not more. I think this has potential but do NOT add garlic. I did, and the flavor is too overwhelming but if it wasn't there, I think I'd love this salad totally and completely.


Basil and Barley Salad

1 c. dry barley, cooked and cooled
3/4 c chopped pecans or other nuts
1/3 c olive oil
1 c basil chiffonade
2 c frozen corn
1 large tomato diced (more would be better but I just had one)
Lemon juice - about 1/4 c or to taste
Salt to taste

Cook the pecans in the olive oil until lightly browned. Cool. Mix all the ingredients together. Do NOT add garlic, particularly two finely minced cloves even if they're small. It's possible that onion would be good in this.

Mmmmmm pesto!

Did I mention I love basil? And pesto. And things made with basil.

But fresh herbs are very expensive so instead of buying it, I grew lots of basil this year, lots and lots of basil!

My friend Kerry is the first one to introduce me to the joys of pesto and I still use her recipe. It's simple to make and well worth the effort. And it freezes well if you freeze it before adding the cheese. I'm not sure there is such a thing as too much pesto but perhaps this year I'll find out because even though I processed 30 cups of basil leaves, I've still got more out in the garden.



Kerry's Pesto


2 c packed fresh basil leaves
1/2 c olive oil
2 tbsp pine nuts (or walnuts)
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp salt
1/2 c freshly grated parmesan
2 tbsp freshly grated romano
3 T softened butter
Linguine or other cooked pasta


Mix basil, olive oil, pine nuts, garlic, and salt in the blender or food processor unless you're a purist and decide to use a mortar and pestle. Mix the basil mixture with the cheese. Mix the butter into the cooked pasta, toss in the basil mixture and toss together.


Now, I always change things up a bit. I find that that is more salt than I like so I add about 3/4 as much as the recipe calls for and I also use just enough olive oil to get the texture I like which is usually a bit less than this. Don't add extra garlic while in theory there is no such thing as too much garlic, in reality there certainly is such a thing as too much garlic. I also don't find it absolutely essential to have both parmesan and romano so I usually just use parmesan since I keep that in my refrigerator at all times.

I started with this little mountain of basil.

Can't you smell it from there? My neighbor told me that he once bought an entire bushel of basil at the farmers market and that night, their smoke detectors went off. They couldn't find smoke or fire but called the fire department anyway and the fire department couldn't find anything either. Their theory is that the very aromatic basil set off their smoke detector. Feel free to try that at home and report back. I can report that my little basil mountain didn't set off the smoke alarm.

One of the most important steps is washing the basil since a gritty pesto is a nasty experience. I'm a fan of double washing myself.

Now pick all the leaves off the stems. It'll take what feels like forever but it's much faster than cleaning cilantro. But all that water? It's got to go or it messes up the pesto. I like a salad spinner for that and I double spin it stopping in between to adjust the leaves so more water will spin off.
Is that enough? Not for me. I also dump it out onto clean dishcloths so it can air dry for a bit before I process it. This is the point where I sliced a tomato, put a bit of the cheese we got in the share on each slice and topped it with a basil leave. What an excellent lunch!
Next I mix it all in the food processor. It comes together very quickly but taste it and make sure it's all to your liking. If it's not, add a bit more of what it's missing or a bit more basil if it seems out of whack.

The last step? Freeze it! I froze some of it in ice cube trays (I had two full trays of pesto) and some in packages that would easily feed four people.
What will I do with it? I find that two cubes of pesto make an excellent sauce for a homemade pizza. Top the pizza with cheese but don't bother with anything else since you won't be able to taste it.

I also put it in soups and salads, anything that needs a lovely little kick.

I also did a little experiment to see if I could preserve some basil without making it into pesto so I'd have just the lovely basil flavor. I mixed it in the food process with water and froze that in an ice cube tray but I have yet to use any of this mix so I'm not sure how well it will work.