Basil is taking over my kitchen! Help!

[Denise]

I have a huge beautiful basil plant in my kitchen window, but I'm having a hard time keeping up with it! I love to make the Red pepper pesto pizza and I have pesto in the freezer, can you suggest any other recipes? It kills me to trim the plant and throw it away, before I got this plant I paid $2-$3 for those little plastic boxes in the grocery store!

[Jewel]

Maybe make some homemade Red Sauce to put in the freezer? Nothing like homemade marinara with fresh basil...

Now if you could ship me a sprig so I could root it?? I can't get the stuff to grow in my house, on my deck, or anywhere else for that matter! Some weird death ray must be shooting from my fingers or something, because ..I...I kill green things. http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/eek.gif

[This message has been edited by Jewel (edited 06-23-2001).]

[Denise]

Take heart Jewel! This is about my 10th attempt at growing basil. I thought it would never work as I put it in my kitchen window which faces due North. But this darn plant just loves it! So maybe you just have to hold your mouth right when planting it ?!

[Vanessa]

Denise
Your plant is doing great. Mine are still growing in my garden (started in jUne 4th). You can do basil & freeze it. If you have tomatoes why not make batches of tomato sauce with basil, onion and peppers and freeze.
You can also run a search typing basil for different recipes
Good luck

[Natasha]

Hi Denise!

As Vanessa mentioned, there have been some good basil threads in the past. Here is one with some recipes you might like to try, as well as some tips for growing basil, which you do not seem to need! http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/wink.gif
http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/Archives/Archive-000002/HTML/20000807-1-000366.html

[Lynn B]

I LOVE my prolific basil plants! There's NEVER too much, IMHO!!!

I make pesto all summer and freeze it in small freezer bags; then we have that delicious "taste of summer" all winter long! mmmmm! http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/smile.gif

Lynn

[Ralph]

Two suggestions:

1. Send some to me! http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/wink.gif http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/wink.gif

2. The July issue has a recipe for Fresh Tomato-Pesto Pizza that calls for a total of 4 1/4 cups of basil. Which leads to another suggestion for the basil - just make some pesto!

[makedah]

Mrs Reber's method for freezing basil is GREAT. When I made spaghetti last week, I kicked up my jarred sauce (Barilla) by slicing two of those frozen leaves (per bowl of pasta) and putting them on the hot pasta before ladling on the sauce. FANTASTIC! It made a big difference. I highly recommend freezing the overflow for uses like that.

[mkvbchef247]

I must have missed the info on the best way to freeze basil, does anyone know?