A Perfect Quick Meal Fresh (Frozen) From the Garden

We've done this post many times, but doing this in advance (a stitch in time saves nine, right?) has pulled us out of a bind many times when we ask ourselves "What's for supper tonight?"  Of course I'm talking pesto.  Time after time, we raid the leaves off of our basil plants and make pesto.  We freeze it in individual containers and pull them out and thaw and make some pasta and BOOM!  There's a delicious, quick and nutritious meal idea.  Today I added another ingredient that stepped up the pesto a notch or two. 

I moved a bench next to the basil plant and picked a bunch of the fresh tender, new leaves.

I picked 8 cups of basil leaves.  The secret ingredient I used this time?  Green onions.  You might call them shallots or onion tops.  I added a cup of these to the 8 cups basil leaves.

I grated some Parmesan cheese in a big measuring cup.

Here are all the ingredients.  You can see the green onions with the basil, the grated parmesan cheese.  Since we have pecans, we substitute them instead of walnuts or pine nuts.  Extra virgin olive oil.  12 cloves garlic.

Here's the recipe we have used for years.  You can see that we quadruple the recipe since we make batches for freezing.

This is the dry-looking paste that is made by mixing the leaves with the pecans in the food processor.

Then the cloves of garlic go in the processor...

And then the olive oil...

A delicious concoction indeed, but we're not done.

We add all the cheese along with salt and pepper to taste.

Then I spoon it into containers for freezing.

I wish you could taste how good this stuff is!

We have served this over pasta.  We've used it as a base (instead of tomato sauce) for homemade pizzas.  We've also made grilled cheese and pesto sandwiches before.  All were terrific!!