By August and September, my basil plants are finally big and bushy enough to supply enough green leaves for making pesto.  From May on, I hoard my basil and “mow” it occasionally to keep it from flowering and going to seed.  I want to keep it herbaceous for as long as possible.  I’ll steal a few leaves for  chopping with fresh tomatoes and mozzarella, or for making my pasta fragrant and tasty, but I am building up my crop to make pesto.
 
Even now in Osage County Kansas in the middle of October, my basil plants are flourishing, and its time again to make pesto to save for the “fresh basil-deprived” cold winter months.
 
The scent of basil is intoxicating. Surprisingly peppery, intense, intoxicating.  I don’t think any fresh scent is as strong or enlivening except possibly that of freshly squeezed lemon juice and zest.  Both these fragrances just wake me up and make me happy.  Now citrus one can have most times of the year, but basil, fresh basil, last only a few months. EXCEPT if you make pesto and freeze it.
 
In making pesto, great as it is, you face some slow food dilemmas. If you like to use local food, you aren’t going to find any pine nuts in Kansas. My husband points out dourly that our pine nuts come from… China.  But hey, they are the classic ingredient. If you want to use something more local, use walnuts.   But then again, you don’t find any olive groves in Kansas either. And you cannot make pesto without good olive oil.
 
So here is the recipe that I like (adapted from a recipe I found at www.elise.com), and have used already for several batches of “green sunshine”.
 
Fresh Basil Pesto 

Ingredients:
2 cups fresh basil leaves, packed
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan-Reggiano or Romano cheese
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/3 cup pine nuts or walnuts
3 medium sized garlic cloves, minced
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

 
1. Combine the basil in with the pine nuts, pulse a few times in a food processor. (If you are using walnuts instead of pine nuts and they are not already chopped, pulse them a few times first, before adding the basil.) Add the garlic, pulse a few times more.
2 Slowly add the olive oil in a constant stream while the food processor is on. Stop to scrape down the sides of the food processor with a rubber spatula. Add the grated cheese and pulse again until blended. Add a pinch of salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.
Makes 1 cup.

Serve with pasta, or over baked potatoes, or spread over toasted baguette slices.
 
Place in freezer-safe containers and freeze.
 
Then all winter long you’ll have stored in your freezer little time capsules of the long, lazy, basil-green, fragrant summer!