The first of the basil is ready in the garden. I do so love basil, I believe it is one of my favorite herbs after tarragon. During our winter visit home to Florida, I dug up some of my perrenial basils thinking that I would have basil forever here like in Florida. Unfortunately, they did not fare well during the winter, even in the kitchen. The African blue basil is teetering on the edge of death and the columnar basil did not survive at all. Luckily, I had so much basil seed that I started a couple of plants thinking they might be fun to share with friends. While working in the garden last week, I spotted enough basil to make this seasons first pesto. Joy!!
I made enough pesto to put a little away and the rest we spread on bread to make our favorite summer sandwich. This is not really a recipe but more like sandwich building instructions. Make your favorite pesto recipe. Here is mine.
To make Our Favorite Summer Sandwich:
Spread pesto on the bread (be genrous, trust me), slice tomatoes thin and fresh mozzarella into round of the same thickness. Layer the mozzarella and tomato slices on the bread and put another slice on top. Still with me?
We then put it on the griddle and place our bacon press on top, flip once and dinner or lunch is done. These are so simple but so delicious. If you don’t have a griddle, use a frying pan and if you don’t have a bacon press, just put another frying pan on top to weight down the sandwiches (that is unless you have one of those lovely panini presses and then maybe you should consider making me a sandwich 🙂
My mouth is watering! Here in WV, our basil is not quite ready yet. I find that when I freeze pesto the color darkens, but the taste is the same. I had no idea there were perennial varieties of basil. I always plant a bunch of it so there is some to share for the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross. 🙂
Patricia, there are many perennial types. The ones I have tried and loved are Columnar (Lesbos) basil and African Blue Basil. The African Blue will quickly become a huge bush that you could never quite consume, its awesome!!
Yummy!! I'm a bit jealous. Not even any basil planted yet! I'm hoping to fix that this weekend though. I will definitely be making these.
Sharron, You have my permission to forgive yourself and cheat a little. Just yesterday, I saw herb plants for sale at Trader Joes and Whole Foods 🙂 Instant gratification. Just remember when you go to harvest any, cut your pieces at least 5 inches long and then when stripping the leaves, leave the top two and put that piece in a cup of water to root, never have to plant basil again.
Looks delish! Will be on the menu this week. Quick question, when you say “put a little away” do you can it or freeze it?
sorry about that Theresa, I freeze it 🙂 Let me know if you like it