I’ve been trying to grow lots of basil. I had a good basil crop a few years ago and made pesto from it, discovering that homemade pesto is far yummier than jarred stuff, to the point where the jarred stuff is hardly worth buying (except that it is still better than no pesto at all… just). It’s been a long wait for the basil crop after my freezer supply of pesto ran out a few months ago.

I used The Real Pesto Recipe from taste.com.au, and it turned out that I’d picked exactly the right amount of basil leaves. I tried it in my blender first, which did not work, then moved into my other blender/food processy thing which is smaller but worked better, and followed the recipe – I ended up using half the amount of oil because I prefer a thicker pesto, and then froze it in half cup batches. It made almost two cups.

The best thing to use it for is this Pumpkin, Bacon and Pesto pasta, which is delicious, but after smelling the delightful basil smell through the kitchen last night, I think it is also going to get used on pizza.

And then I’ll keep watering the basil plants and tending them carefully, hoping to get another crop out of them.