I love to cook with fresh basil. Last summer I sliced Roma tomatoes and dried them with basil leaves in my food dehydrator and then put the dried mixture in plastic baggies and stored it in the freezer (because I didn't want to risk mold) to use in pasta dishes throughout the late fall and winter months. I had one basil plant last summer and I found myself wishing I had much more so this year I went crazy and planted about twenty basil plants. We've had so much rain these past couple weeks that the plants are going crazy. I am going to try a couple different methods of preservation this coming season. Here is a website which has some tested ideas on keeping basil as close to fresh as possible.
2 comments:
A basil... the smell of summer in a leaf. I plant as much as I can cram in every year. But, you can only make so much pesto (which freezes just fine in snack-sized plastic zip bags). My personal fave for preserving is drying, as most of the dishes I will use it for in the winter are cooked. No blanching, just make sure they are clean, then lay flat or hang, stems up, in a closet until dry. Store leaves whole in a glass jar, and you're ready to go.
Thanks for your visit to Riviera Dogs. I've pots of basil too - can't live without it in summer. Tomatoes, mozzarella, olive oil and basil - yummy. And fresh brown bread.
My best friend lives in Westerville, near Columbus, so I really noticed when I saw you live in Ohio.
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