HOMEMADE SAGE PESTO
Since "summer" decided to show up, the sage bush literally grew from a few leaves to an entire bush, luckily it was potted! I saw a few ideas online of making infused sage oil, which was great but I needed to think of something that would tackle the crazy sudden growth spurt. So I decided to make pesto as I had never done it before but knew you can make it out of pretty much any leafy herb. I did mix mine with a bit of basil too as I love the flavour and smell of it.
It seems like a lot of people now are trying to do their bit when it comes to food waste & this is a really great idea for anyone else feeling overwhelmed by their herb garden. The satisfaction you get when homemaking things like this makes you feel all warm and fuzzy...just me?
As we've had some hot weather recently, the last thing you're probably thinking of is a bowl of pesto pasta, but there are other ways you can add this lovely stuff to a dish, brush it onto potatoes for a homemade seasoning or even add it to make a pesto crumb for meat/fish.
There are lots of recipes online, but I just sort of used what I had and made it up as I went along, like a lot of things I cook.
2 cups of sage leaves (without the stalks)
1/2 cup of basil leaves
1/2 cup toasted walnuts
2 garlic cloves
1/2 cup of grated parmesan
1/2 cup of olive oil
1 lemon wedge (squeezed for the juice)
Salt and Pepper to taste
There is probably some technique to making it, but I literally just washed the leaves, grated the parmesan to save it being too clumpy, threw it all into a food processor and whizzed it up...I tweaked a few bits here and there, adding more oil when I wanted it to be less thick. The most time consuming part was picking and washing the sage leaves, the rest took minutes to do.
If you don't think you'll eat that much pesto this summer, you can freeze it in ice cube trays and then decant into a container (this is what I did) to use as and when without worrying about how long it's going to last. Alternatively if you drizzle olive oil to cover the top, it helps it to keep better in the fridge.
