Basil Harvest

Okay, I went for it...Today I harvested the majority of my basil. I had both lemon basil and traditional genovese basil.

So, I made three pestos*.

1) Classical Basil Pesto: pine nuts, garlic, basil, olive oil, sea salt

2) Chef's Triple Italian Herb**: basil, rosemary, oregano, garlic, pine nuts, garlic, olive oil, sea salt

3) Lemon-Mint: Lemon basil, basil, lemon-thyme, mint, lemon zest, garlic, pine nuts, olive oil, sea salt

*I omitted cheese with the goal of being able to diversify its use. I can always add a cheese of my choice to the dish when I use it.

**This is a made up name. I thought it sounded good though...

I like to put my frozen herbs in plastic bags, that way I can break off pieces for use, without having to defrost the whole container if I only need a little. Not my own original idea, but it works great.

I used the classic in my dinner tonight. I made frozen tilapia (yes, I kind of cheated), and then a side of veggie pasta, with spinach, tossed with the classic pesto, with parmesan cheese added.