I am sad to see the temperature droop as we get more into the fall weather. Not only it means cold winter months are heading this way, it also signal the end of cutting fresh basil from my herb garden whenever I need basil for cooking. It's especially sad when unexpected cold nights freeze my basil plant and turn the whole thing black before I get a chance to harvest them. To not take the chance of loosing basil to cold nights, I started harvest my basil plants this weekend in mid October. I'm making a batch of regular pesto to freeze and a batch of almond tomato pesto for pasta.
I was wondering what else to do with them so I can enjoy basil in the winter months since freeze them in the freezer turn the herb black. I google "how to preserve basil" and learned a few things from articles on the internet. I froze a batch of basil leaves after I rub olive oil on them. They did not turn black!
Harvesting and preserving your Sweet Basil
Don't try to dry your sweet basil as the flavour is not the same as fresh basil. You can keep the leaves briefly in plastic bags in the refrigerator or you can preserve them in olive oil or vinegar. To freeze you can puree the leaves with a little water and freeze them in ice cube trays or you can cover both sides with olive oil and freeze them whole.
Basil puree For every 2 cups of fresh basil leaves (lightly packed into the measuring cup), use 1/2 cup of light olive oil (I prefer a light, relatively flavorless olive oil so that the basil flavor really shines through, but you can use an extra virgin if you prefer.) Be sure to pick the leaves only from the stems. Wash the leaves then pat them dry with kitchen towels.
If you are a purist you will mash the leaves with a mortar and pestle, but I use the food processor. Whiz up the leaves until chopped, and add the oil to make a puree. Add a few drops of lemon juice, and a little salt (1/4 tsp. or so per 2 cups of basil).I freeze this spread thinly in plastic zip bags. To use, just break or cut off as much as you need. You can turn this into pesto by adding freshly grated Parmesan, crushed or grated garlic, and ground pine nuts. (The easy way of course is to whiz everything together in the food processor.)
