Post number 802: Pesto

YAY this is post number 802!!  Was planning on doing a bit of boasting when I got to post 800, but then forgot about it. sigh.  Story of my life really :)

We've got a bit of basil about the place at the moment, so I decreed this weekend to be pesto making weekend...

I used Stephanie Alexander's recipe in her Kitchen Garden Companion.  We ended up with about 3 cups of basil; picked, un-bugged, de-leafed and washed by hubs.

Being fundamentally lazy I fling it all in the blitzer - none of this mortar and pestle business, no siree...

Then I blitz it...

And then blitz it some more. We like our pesto smooth not chunky - well the kids do, and as they actually eat it, and it is green, I am happy to do it their way. 

Check out that awesome colour :)  That is around 600ml.  I was intending to freeze this lot, but then Ms Alexander said you can just cover the pesto with oil and keep it in the fridge and it will last until you get the next lot of basil in the spring.  So, with some trepidation, that is what I am doing.

Barring unforseen disasters (and oh yes, I'm sure there will be something) we should have enough basil in the next month or so to make another big batch, which I will freeze, just in case this lot starts to ferment on me.

We used the stuff that wouldn't fit in the tub to make homemade chicken pesto pizza.  This is easy to do, and to die for...
1. Make pizza dough, roll out
2. Cover with tomato paste
3. Chop raw chicken breast into small pieces, fling in bowl, stir through as much pesto as you think fit
4. Arrange artfully on pizza
5. Sprinkle with a little bit of cheese (mozzarella)
6. Bung in oven, cook until you are SURE chicken is cooked through - takes a little longer than usual we find
7. Guard your two teeny weeny slivers from voracious children and husband - use any means necessary, you have my permission.

I do have to say that I am now, officially, sick of pesto.

Well for today.