Basil Pesto
If you can get your hands on a lot of fresh basil, this should be the first dish that you make. Nothing says summer quite like basil pesto, and if you freeze half of it, it will be easy to perk up fall and winter dishes. Pesto is wonderful on pasta, pizza, sandwiches, and in soups. Originally served as part of: Grilled Chicken and Pesto Pasta.
Ingredients
- 2 cloves garlic (peeled)
- 2 tablespoons pine nuts
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 3 ounces fresh basil (cleaned, dried, and stemmed)
- 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil (divided)
- 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese (grated)
Instructions
The most time consuming part of making pesto is cleaning and gathering the basil. One large bunch of basil from the farmer's market yesterday, after cleaning and stemming, weighs in at 3 ounces. This is a little more than 3 cups of basil, gently packed. This recipe yields about a cup of basil pesto.
In our food processor, we put the garlic, actually just 1.5 cloves since the garlic is a bit old and we need to cut off a bit, the pine nuts, and the salt and grind up for about 10 seconds. Next, we add the basil and pulse about 10 times until the basil is chopped. Then we turn on the processor and stream in half the oil. We turn off the processor and scrape down the pesto. We drizzle in another 2 tablespoons of oil with the machine on and then we are ready. We put half of the pesto in a resealable plastic container and stir in the cheese. The remaining pesto we put in an ice cube tray for future use. We want to freeze it without any cheese, and then when we defrost the cubes we will need to add parmesan. We pour the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil over the pesto in the ice cube tray and the plastic container. We refrigerate the container to be used over the next week and freeze the ice cube tray. When the cubes are frozen (we only have the tray half-way filled), we place them into a freezer bag.
Ingredients
- 3 oz fresh basil (about 3 cups, gently packed)
- 2 cloves garlic (peeled)
- 2 tbsp pine nuts
- ¼ tsp kosher salt
- ½ cup extra-virgin olive oil (divided)
- ¼ cup Parmesan (grated)
Instructions
What's a kid job?
A Kid job is a step kids can help with, with a grown-up nearby, not one they do on their own. Every kid is different, so go by what your child can do rather than by age. Roughly:
- Little ones (about 2 to 4) can stir, pour in ingredients a grown-up has measured, tear lettuce, wash vegetables and sprinkle toppings.
- Older kids (about 5 to 8) can also measure and level, crack eggs, whisk, roll and cut out dough, and put things together.
- Bigger kids can read the recipe aloud, keep track of the timer, and take on more of the cooking as they're ready.
Steps with a knife, microplane, skewers, stove, oven, grill or hot oil, or with raw meat, poultry or seafood, are marked Grown-up. Kids can still watch those, from a safe distance.
Kid job
Clean and dry the basil and pick the leaves off the stems; this is the slow part.
Process the garlic, pine nuts and salt about 10 seconds. Add the basil and pulse about 10 times. With the machine running, stream in half the oil. Scrape down and drizzle in 2 tablespoons more.
Kid job
Put half the pesto in a container and stir in the cheese. Spoon the rest into an ice cube tray without cheese (add it after thawing). Pour the last 2 tablespoons of oil over both. Refrigerate the container for the week; freeze the tray, then bag the cubes.