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To everything, (turn turn turn) there is a season. And now is the season for basil. Gone are the days of little tiny stupid plastic boxes of sad wilty basil leaves shipped from Mexico, at the bargain price of $3 per box. The days of heaping big bags of basil for $1.50 are here.
Go to your farmers market and get yourself some basil.
Basil Pesto
You don't need a recipe for basil pesto. Get some basil, stuff it into your food processor. Toss in a garlic clove or four. Add some pine nuts. Pour in some olive oil. Run the machine until you have a nice paste. Too runny? Add some more basil. Too dry? Add some oil. Throw in some finely grated parmesan cheese. Add some salt. Keep tasting it and adjusting it until you like it.
Spoon it into ice cube trays (metal trays, or cheap plastic ones that you don't mind sacrificing for the cause) and freeze it. When it's frozen hard, pop the pesto out of the trays and seal them in ziploc bags, one or two cubes to a bag.
Next January when it's cold and gray and it's been raining for 87 days straight and you come home exhausted and starving, you'll throw some noodles in a pot, pull out a cube of homemade pesto, and in 11 minutes you'll be savouring the flavour of summer.
Basil Oil
Again, no real recipe here.
Take some basil, a good couple of handfuls (stems and all) and blanche them in boiling water for just a second.
Plunge the basil into a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking. Drain it and squeeze the excess water out. Chop coarsely.
Fill your blender, say halfway, with canola oil (don't waste your expensive olive oil). Put the basil in, choose the highest setting your blender offers and let it do it's thing. Blend for 3 minutes.
Pour the pulpy mess into a container, cover, and let it sit for 24 hours.
Strain it. Strain it again. Strain it through cheesecloth.
Pour into a couple of plastic squeeze bottles. You can add a little bit of olive oil now, if you want the flavour.
Drizzle the oil on pasta. Pour a little on top of your tomato soup. Use it in salad dressings. Decorate your plates with it. Go nuts.
Sweet Basil Oil
This one doesn't have a very long shelf life (4 or 5 days) but it's quick and easy, and great for fruit salads, cocktails, ice cream, etc.
1 handful of basil, blanched, schocked, drained, and chopped coarsely.
1/2 cup of simple syrup (if you don't already have simple syrup on hand, then you are not drinking Mojitos this summer and something is seriously wrong with you)
1/2 cup almond or walnut oil.
Blend everything in your blender for 3 minutes.
Strain through a very fine mesh strainer.
Slice up some peaches, sprinkle with sugar. Give them a dollop of mascarpone cheese and a drizzle of sweet basil oil. Just pour a little bit of it over fruit and yogurt, and breakfast gets a whole lot tastier.
This is one of those recipes that slips into your repetoire and before you know it you are making it 4 times a month and referring to it as my watermelon salad. This is not my recipe, it comes to me from K, and to her from a restaurant in San Francisco, and really, it's a classic greek pairing. But, I promise you, make it a few times, serve it to your friends, and before long you too will be calling it My Watermelon Salad.
1/4 to 1/3 of a ripe water melon, cut into bite sized pieces.
1/2 to 1 Cup of soft greek feta, cut or crumbled into pieces.
A good handful of basil, cut to ribbons
Juice of one lemon.
Some good olive oil.
Some basil oil if you're feeling fancy
2 T toasted pinenuts.
Maldon salt and some coarsely ground pepper.
Salad greens. K uses mache, which I can never find. I use watercress. Butter lettuce might be nice. I think arugula would be great. So, you know, pick something green and toss it in.
If I was going to do this salad for work, I'd cut the watermelon into rounds and the cheese into squares, and stack it all up in layers, and garnish it with a cutesy little cress salad on top of the stack, but, since I am anti fancy plating at home, I just toss the whole mess into a big bowl and swirl it around with my hands till everything is coated.