Basil + Tomatoes + Mozz = Caprese

This summer I planted some basil in a pot on our patio, and have been enjoying the fruits of my labor (and my roommate’s as he waters it when I am out of town). Unfortunately, I think the basil has gone to seed, which from what I gather by reading online, indicates that the plant won’t grow new leaves. Maybe someone can confirm this for me???? I read this page to try to get the lowdown.

Of course I have been making lots of pesto which was something I had never made from scratch, but I knew wasn’t difficult. I’ve tried a couple of recipes, including a tasty hand-chopped recipe at tastebuddies.com, but I’ve stuck with the following recipe. I found this somewhere online but have tweaked it a bit to my liking and I’ve been happy with my results. Hopefully it’s not too late to buy some more young basil plants because I want to plant a bunch to harvest and turn into pesto to freeze.  I’ve been loving the pesto on everything from pasta to turkey sandwiches and don’t want to go without this winter (or pay in-store prices for an inferior product).

Homemade Pesto

• 2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
• 2 cups packed basil leaves, roughly chopped
• 1/4 tbsp chopped pine nuts
• 4 tbsp grated Parmigiano-Reggiano (I like using a zester in this case)
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
• pinch of sea salt

Directions: combined all ingredients in food processor, except olive oil. Pulse the processor a few times until everything is mixed and finely chopped. Then slowly pour olive oil into processor while running, stop when all olive oil has been introduced.

Side note: These Silicone Spatulas are perfect for scraping every bit of a liquid-based mixture out of things like a food processor. Note that I DO NOT own the pink ones.

Being that I had fresh tomatoes and basil I decided a Caprese salad would be great to eat last night. I sliced up a large tomato, hit it with some salt and pepper, layered a single basil leaf on each tomato, then topped each one of with a nice sized slice of fresh mozzarella. For a little change I then took two small spoonful of the newly made pesto and whisked in 4-5 tablespoons of good quality olive oil, then took this mixture and drizzled it on top of the whole dish. This isn’t the most creative or difficult dish, but man was it good.