Posts Tagged ‘Basil’

I’m outfront weeding the garden and a neighbor passes by, “Oh! You have something stuck in your hair, let me get it.” “Nope!” I quickly replied, placing my hand by my ear. “That’s supposed to be there, its basil!” Across the street at the Beach 91st St. Community Garden is where I gather my basil leaves*, and when doing so, think of my grandfather Ralph, who always in the summertime had a piece of basil behind his ear. I have this image in my mind like a still photograph, of […]

Paula’s Pesto (makes 1 cup) 2 cups fresh basil leaves, packed 1/2 cup freshly grated pecorino romano 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil (don’t use cheap stuff) 1/3 cup pine nuts 2 medium sized garlic cloves, minced ½ lemon squeezed Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste Directions: Mix all ingredients in a food processor except the olive oil, salt and pepper. Once roughly chopped, slowly add the olive oil, then salt and pepper to taste Seal tightly in a container. You can freeze pesto by adding a layer of […]

Here it is, past the July 4th weekend and this is what my basil plants look like (above).  Last year I was so proud that I had a red grape tomato one day after my Italian friend in Brooklyn had his first one.  This year my basil leaves a lot to be desired. My friend Fran, has a jungle of basil growing in her yard.  My sister, Brenda, has it coming out of the cracks in her deck, so it isn’t the cold Spring or lack of sunshine here in […]

We have so much basil – I really need to start making pesto with this! It’s harvest season. We have a rat munching on our tomatoes (not cool). It makes perfect sense, since Ridgewood has been overrun by them this year. My theory is that our intruder scales the climbing vines on our building and makes his (or her) way up to the RD for a midnight snack. Considering I rarely see squirrels on our block, I’m 90% sure it’s a rat.  Urban gardening is not easy, gosh!  We have a […]

I have three basil plants in the garden, one of which is quite large. This means it’s time to harvest and make a batch of pesto! I wanted to make it traditionally, using pine nuts. I picked them up at Valentino’s on Fresh Pond Road. For imported Italian products, Valentino’s is my go-to market. My sista-in-law Clare likes using walnuts – they’re easier to find, cheaper and she prefers the taste. Use whichever you like. Instead of a food processor, (which I don’t have) I decided to use my favorite […]