BASIL: Basil Paste; Basil Pesto Flavor Cubes

Last year I made lots of Basil Pesto Flavor Cubes (recipe below) and that was great; I used my flavor cubes all year long. But this year, I’m going to turn my basil into Basil Paste Flavor Cubes  – just basil and extra virgin olive oil (recipe below). After all, plain Basil Paste is more versatile than Basil Pesto, and I can always make Basil Pesto from Basil Paste.  Plus, I can toss Basil Paste Flavor Cubes into soups, stews, or stir fried veggies!

BASIL PESTO FLAVOR CUBES (pesto and so much more)

Note: This recipe’s ingredients, amounts and basic processing steps comes from the Cusinart Instruction Booklet (that came with my new machine), p. 37.

Makes 1 1/3 cups (enough to make about a dozen ice cubes in my ice cube tray or  mini muffins in my silicone mini muffin pan)

Ingredients

4 ounces high quality Parmesan cheese (rind removed), cut into 1-inch pieces

• Ideally, I like to use a chunk of Parmesan Reggiano (great taste).
• Remove the Parmesan rind before you put the cheese into the food processor because the rind is very hard and dense and makes it difficult  for the food processor to do it’s job.
• A Parmesan rind is great for seasoning homemade soups and pasta sauces. Just toss the rind in with all the other ingredients simmering in the soup pot and use less salt than the recipe calls for, because the rind adds salt. If you simmer the soup long enough the rind nearly disappears and adds great flavor.

4 small garlic cloves

• I didn’t happen to have any fresh garlic on hand so I used the frozen Dorot Crushed Garlic that I keep in my freezer at all times. I think it works even better than fresh garlic because it’s so finely crushed that the garlic flavor evenly diffuses in the pesto.

2 1/2 cups tightly packed fresh basil leaves (hard stems removed)

• If your basil has flowers on it, apparently that’s OK. They’re edible too.
• If you can’t make the pesto right away, no problem. Fresh basil can sit for a few days on your kitchen counter in a glass of water, just like cut flowers! Just make sure only the stems are in the water (no leaves).
• For a truly remarkable website about basil as well as all herbs and spices, see Gernot Katzer’s Spice Pages ! Among other things, on this site you can find the name for herbs and spices in the languages of the the cuisines that commonly use each herb or spice – something that’s very helpful when shopping in your local Chinese, Korean or other nationality specialty market!  In fact, sometimes I print out the page with the names of the spices in other languages so I can show the text to a clerk that doesn’t speak English at the grocery store!

1/3 cup walnut pieces

• Walnuts are much less expensive than pine nuts.
• Walnuts are also a decent source of ALA, the pre-curser to omega-3′s — which means your body can convert ALA into Omega 3′s!

¾ teaspoon salt

1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

Directions

Note: Pesto freezes better if it’s not made with cheese. So if you plan to freeze the pesto, add the Parmesan cheese right before serving (which means you skip the first step of the directions below).

• Using the food processor fitted with the metal blade, chop the Parmesan for about 30 seconds, until nicely chopped.
• Add the garlic, basil, walnuts, and salt, and half of the olive oil (half of 1/3 cup) and process until combined, about 8 pulses.
• With the machine running, pour the remaining oil into the feed tube (which lets the oil drain gradually into the work bowl of the processor).
• Scrape the bowl with a spatula, and continue processing until you have a smooth consistency, about 20 seconds. (You may find that you need to process the mixture for longer; I did).

The pesto will stay fresh for a few days in the refrigerator.

How to freeze pesto to make your BASIL PESTO FLAVOR CUBES

• As mentioned above, omit cheese from recipe if the pesto will be frozen. You can always stir in freshly grated Parmesan cheese to taste later when the pesto is defrosted.

• If  you have a silicone mini-muffin baking pan, you can freeze the pesto very easily. Just fill each muffin cup with basil. Then keep the muffin pan flat and place it in the freezer. As soon as the pesto is frozen, you just pop the “pesto muffins” — your Pesto Flavor Cubes — out. Put the frozen Pesto Flavor Cubes into a plastic bag for the freezer; store in the freezer.

• If you do not have a silicone mini-muffin pan, use an ice cube tray. And instead of popping the frozen cubes out later, just pry them out with a fork. That works too!

So…now what are we going to do with all of those frozen pesto ice cubes?
Defrost the amount you want and:

• Mix pesto and pasta (whole wheat)

• Smear some pesto over grilled fish or chicken

• Mix pesto into brown rice or quinoa for color and flavor

• Mix pesto with a little more oil and some vinegar (or lemon juice) to make a great salad dressing

• Use pesto as sandwich spread

• Mix pesto and hummus and use the mixture as a sandwhich spread

• Make deviled eggs: Take hard-cooked eggs, cut in half lengthwise, remove the yolk, fill hollow with mixture of hummus and pesto

BASIL PASTE FLAVOR CUBES

If you don’t need pesto, but you want to have some basil to use all winter, you can freeze your basil with a little olive oil (to lightly coat the leaves and keep them nice and bright green). Here’s the technique developed by a fellow blogger, Kayln Denny. Also, herbalist, Susan Belsinger, makes basil paste the in the same manner, as shown in this Washington Post article/recipe.

As you know, I like to freeze small portions (sometimes in teaspoon or tablespoon portions) in silicone mini muffin pans and then pop the frozen flavor cubes into plastic bags for the freezer. Recently at one of William Sonoma’s technique classes, I learned that if you zip your bag closed and then insert a little straw into a small opening you can suck out the air. This will help keep your Basil Paste Flavor Cubes (and all other flavor cubes) fresher for longer!

Enjoy and be healthy!

Leni

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