A Week of Firsts. First Pesto, Tomato, Garlic Chives, Beans.

This has been the week of firsts, the first batch of pesto, the first ripe tomato, the first garlic chive shoots and the first pole beans.

First the pesto. I love it and once the basil is big, I make it once a week.

I gather a big bunch of basil. This is good for the plants, they divide and grow more shoots.

The important thing about basil is do not let it develop seed heads. First you see a tight cluster of leaves tiny leaves, then before you know it the flower shoot sprouts.


When the seed head forms the plant sends all of it's energy into the seed formation.
For a long season of big basil leaves, pick, pick, pick.

I'm kind of a basic pesto person. Basil, garlic, olive oil, salt, pine nuts and a combination of Fulvi Pecorino Romano and Parmesan cheeses. I like lots of garlic and pine nuts. I don't use a recipe. I fly with the proportions and taste a lot. It goes something like this:

A big bowl of basil picked from the stems,
8 cloves of garlic,
1/2 cup pine nuts (at least)
1 cup of grated cheeses.

Whirl the garlic and olive oil in a food processor, add the basil in batches, add the pine nuts then cheese and salt remember, you can always add more. I like the whole wheat pastas in shapes. I like the way the pesto clings to the crevices. I boil the pasta reserving some of the cooking liquid. Toss it with the pesto.
Taste and adjust the seasonings adding more pasta water if the pesto seems too thick. I like it with a nice mixed green garden surprise salad - whatever greens are going in the garden, some foraged wild plants like purslane and dandelions (I've kept one dandelion plant going in the Chris plot for tender leaves), some nasturtiums, borage flowers, and sorrel. tossed with a simple mustard vinaigrette dressing.

My first ripe tomato isn't quite ready yet it's one of the rampo variety. It was quite pink so I picked it.

It seems somehow wrong not to let it get completely ripe on the vine but I have been the victim of the squirrel once too many times. You notice an almost ripe tomato, dream about is slice with fresh mozzarella and those big basil leave in the basil mint plot. Next day you go by and there it is either on the ground with big bites out of it or maybe still on the stem with little bites all over or the biggest insult is to arrive and there the little grey furry one is on the back of the garden bench munching away. pieces of the lovely tomato all over the back of the bench. Someone should invent little tomato cages that you put around almost ripe tomatoes. They'd have to be rigid and big enough to keep the squirrels clever little hands from touching the fruit. Day dreams.

I love garlic chive shoots.

The tenderer the better. I put a big cluster of them in a dry cast iron pan and roast them until their color turns bright green. Nice as an accent on a grated cabbage, nam pla based salad with Vietnamese coriander, some perilla and hot chiles. Chive sprouts are also great on pasta or over marinated roasted tofu.

The beans are coming in nicely though the tomatillo jungle has reduced their numbers this year. But I do love tomatillos. As I pull up the turnips I've been planting rows of bush beans to compensate some what.

Sadly, the Lebanese cucumbers were short lived. They were sweet and tender but got wilt fast.