From Basil to Pesto

Nothing can please a gardener more than to harvest the fruit of his labour. Be it fruit or bloom, the pleasure is such to make all sorrows and past failures fade and compense the year's hard work.

This anticipated autumn has brought a copious load of basil - the fat, sweet smelling Italian one, which after generous pickings of leaves for salads and sauces during all summer, now gave a whole load for homemade pesto.

Pesto is best made with Genovese Basil, any sweet Italian one is fine though . I'd rather not choose the tiny leafed Greek Basil, because it tends to be more pungent and has a slight  taste of incense.

Pesto requires grated parmesan, pine kernels (not an optional), garlic to your taste - pesonally I do not abuse of it, salt and good Extra Virgin olive oil. It takes 5 minutes to go from the picture above to the one below.... once you get the blender going.

 The result is wonderfully fragrant Pesto that compares in no way to any store bought version!

This is what is left of my truly giant bush I had before I decided to make pesto this morning... With a bit of care and love I might be able to repeat in a couple of weeks...

Actually I planted this basil in a big pot that is home to my beloved Kafir Lime which almost died this spring ( in spite of intense and loving cares !???!). The Kafir did slowly recover ( the reason for its sudden illness is still a mystery - maybe it got too cold over winter) but meanwhile I had planted the basil next to it. Apparently they liked the mutual company because both grew like mad. I think I will continue to plant them together given the results...