Pesto

My garden was prolific with arugula and basil. I have harvested the arugula, to be reseeded today for another crop. I have also harvested much of the basil, leaving the leading twin leaves so that the crop will continue to grow. I made pesto using basil from our garden and garlic from the Welland farmer’s market. The pine nuts were not local, nor was the olive oil, the parmesan cheese, the salt or the pepper, although I had it all on hand. I froze many little half-cup jam jars of pesto and kept one in the refrigerator for our use. I also froze some 1-cup jars before I found more of the little jars in the cellar. I will have to look for substitutes for the non-local ingredients. The recipe I used is in my cookbook: Ancestral Cooking.

PESTO:
To fill 3 or 4 4-ounce jam jars:
2 cups firmly packed fresh basil leaves, rinsed and dried
½ cup olive oil
3 cloves garlic, peeled
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup shredded parmesan cheese
¼ cup pine nuts or walnuts
Gently puree basil, oil, garlic, salt, cheese and nuts.
Store in the refrigerator or freezer.

This is not all local, it seems. I will work on finding local options for the oil, cheese and nuts. We do have walnut trees, so we can supply our own nuts. This could be made with walnut oil, I presume, if I can find any without pressing my own. I might consider a local aged cheese as a substitute for Parmesan.