Saving the Freshness of Summer

Here at Chiot's Run we make sure we're enjoying all the fresh tastes of summer. Since we've been trying to eat more seasonally and not spend as much time canning & preserving, I've been making sure to enjoy things as they're at their peak. That means we've been eating sliced fresh tomatoes with every meal.

One of our other favorite fresh summer tastes is pesto. I usually make a batch and we enjoy it on; homemade pasta, pizza, toast, vegetables, etc. My pesto recipe is very simple, I use walnuts or pecans instead of pine nuts because I always have some in the freezer.


FRESH SUMMER PESTO
1/4 cup of walnuts
2 cloves of garlic, sliced
1 1/2 cups of fresh basil leaves
1/3 cup good olive oil
3 T. butter
1/4 cup romano cheese
salt & pepper to taste

Add walnuts, garlic and basil to food processor and process until finely chopped. Drizzle with 1/3 cup of good olive oil and process until combined, add 3 Tablespoons of butter and pulse until blended. Empty contents into bowl and stir in cheese and salt and pepper to taste. Allow to rest for a few hours before serving.



This particular batch of pesto was enjoyed over some fresh linguine that I made last night. There's enough left over for something else, I'm thinking make a white lasagne with cheese and pesto and no marinara.

What are you enjoying at the peak of it's fresh flavor?

I can also be found at Chiot's Run where I blog daily about gardening, cooking, local eating, beekeeping, and all kinds of stuff. You can also find me at Not Dabbling in Normal, and you can follow me on Twitter.