On these hot days of August, my green terrace has become the ideal place to grow lush basil plants and then to pick and collect the leaves for making exquisite pesto sauce. Besides, the more you prune the plants, the more vigorous and verdant they grow.

After washing the leaves, I left them to get naturally dried in a gentle way under the sun umbrella in the green terrace, without sponging them with a kitchen cloth. I chopped the leaves with my hands and I used neither scissors nor knife, in order not to oxidize the leaves with the blade.

A small mortar and marble pestle were the traditional tools that I needed throughout the work process to make pesto. I started with the basil leaves in the mortar and then, I gradually added pine nuts, extra virgin olive oil, Grana Padano grated cheese. No garlic. More than once, I tasted the mixture during its processing and there I realized the sauce was taking on a delicious, delicate fresh flavor of Summer.

In the end, I poured the basil sauce in jars, in order to make small portions, and added extra virgin olive oil to cover on top of the surface. The jars have been stored then in the freezer to have a small supply of basil sauce to be ready for many different culinary occasions: on pasta, pizza, bruschetta, potato salad, cheese and as imagination and tastes suggest when you cook.

A further idea was to use arugula as aromatic herb to prepare a velvety sauce following the same procedure as for the basil sauce but with different ingredients. At this proper, I made an excellent sauce using arugula, dried tomatoes, almond flakes, an idea of garlic, Grana Padano grated cheese, extra virgin olive oil.

As you can see, it is simple to make these fresh sauces and it does not take too much time. It is an other way to store homemade Summer flavours from the kitchen garden and to use them at Winter with special delicacies to serve even at Christmas time. Do you agree? 😊