End of Summer uses for Basil and Tomato

This week's CSA included some sweet loot -- a HUGE bundle of Basil that was almost going to seed and a bunch of cute baby tomatoes.  I knew I had my work cut out for me -- lots of good things were going to come out of this.

When Basil is paired with Tomato in the kitchen, it instantly evokes the end of summer for me.  The bounty of a kitchen sink filled with tomatoes, some sliced around a plate with some basil leaves scattered around it while you're warming up the kitchen making sauce is the perfect thing to do with a late August or early September night.  The smell of them paired together instantly makes me happily hungry.

The first thing that I made was the easiest:  Basil pesto.  If you have a blender or food processor, the hardest thing is washing it out afterwards.  It's ease sort of makes me want to make it all the time and smear it all over everything!

In this recipe I modified things a bit from traditional pesto.  Instead of pignoli nuts (aka pine nuts) I used walnuts, and I added in extra lemon juice instead of the usual amount of olive oil.  The taste was super fresh and vibrant, like a sea breeze on a summer's day.

Lemony Basil Pesto

• 2 cups well packed fresh basil leaves
• 4 garlic cloves, chopped or crushed (the blender will do the rest of the work for you)
• 1/2 cup walnuts, unsalted and raw
• 4 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• a pinch of salt

Simplest recipe ever:  put everything into a blender.  Blend.  Eat.  Enjoy.  Makes about 1 1/2 cups of pesto.  Will keep for 5 days in the fridge.

I also must confess that I didn't get to my basil bunch right away.  Some of the leaves had started to dry and turn a purplish brown color and I knew they wouldn't taste so great in the pesto.  I couldn't bear to waste them, though, so I broke all the leaves off and dried them out in my oven.  I set the oven to 250 degrees and let the basil toast away for about 20 minutes while I quickly mixed up some of these Red Lentil Hybrids with some leftovers that I had in order to fully utilize the oven's power.  Once the basil was dry, it crushed easily between my fingers.  It yielded about 1/2 a cup, and I've already sprinkled it on risotto and veggies, and it is amazing how fragrant and flavorful freshly dried basil is!  I'd recommend doing this with any herb that you can't use up fast enough.

Lastly, I had to do something sweet with these babes:

My husband is a fan of chutney, but I'm not a fan of how much sugar is typically in chutney that you can buy in the store.  Making some at home was the answer, and it was sooo the right answer!  I added a little spunk to the chutney by slicing up some crystallized ginger cubes and boiling that up with all the tomatoes and spices.

 After about an hour and 15 minutes of boiling into awesomeness, this chutney was ready.  We spread it on crepes, biscuits, and used it to accompany our meals.  We both wanted to eat it all instantly but had to use a lot of willpower to make it last!

Tomato Ginger Chutney

• 1.5 lbs cherry tomatoes, split in half
• 2 tablespoons sugar (or more if you desire)
• 3 tablespoons fresh lime juice (I imagine lemon would be great here too)
• 2 tablespoons powdered ginger
• 5 pieces crystallized ginger, sliced into small pieces
• 1 pinch salt
• 1 pinch corriander

Combine all the ingredients with a 1/8 cup of water in a heavy sauce pan.  Cover and let simmer for about 1 hour and 15 minutes, stirring and tasting every once in a while.  Store in a glass jar in the refrigerator -- keeps for five days.  Yields about 1 cup of chutney.