Last night I finally broke down, harvested the basil from our herb garden, and made pesto genovese. I divided what I had made into twelve luxurious servings, used two in our last night’s dinner, saved two in the refrigerator for later in the week, and froze the rest to hoard for the depths of winter so they can be thawed and relished to remind us that summer will come again.
Our home is filled with the amazing aroma of fresh basil.
Did the same thing a few weeks ago, and have been making big batches of stuff with our larger than normal tomato crop. Have pretty much given up canning since we got the big chest freezer. Tomatillos next.
Steve
Most people aren’t aware of it but there are a lot of traditional American recipes for tomatillos, usually called in them “ground cherries”. The Shakers made preserves and pies from them, for example.
Interesting. Had not thought of them as traditional American food. Never saw them growing up. We use them to make a huge batch of green chile, but I am going to have a lot extra.
Steve
Next year, you might try layering some basil leaves in salt. It doesn’t preserve the leaves, but does strongly scent the salt.
I’m more familiar with ground cherries as Physalis, aka ‘Cape Gooseberries’, smaller than tomatillos and white/yellow/orange in color. They’re in the same Family as tomatillos, but different.