It is the height of summer and a burst of hot days means that the basil plants are abundant both in the garden and the local markets in the town's plaza. Growing up my younger sister had a severe tomato allergy, so pesto pizza was my family's default and I grew up loving that green paste.
And as an adult my passion for pesto has only grown and flowed outside the borders of typical pesto recipes. I love to add other herbs besides the classic basil. Mint, rosemary, oregano, and even yarrow leaves. This recipe, however will only include fresh basil as I have so much of it right now!
I decided to go a bit un-orthodox though. Instead of pecans or walnuts I am using sesame seeds. And instead of a true pesto, this is kinda a "Pesto Cream" with the addition of a bit of filtered water as well as olive oil.
The sesame seeds were soaked overnight -- of course! Soaking seeds is so so important and add a lot of nutrients to a recipe while also taking out anti-nutrients naturally found in seeds. If you are curious about my process for improving seeds with soaking I made a video all about that.
After soaking the sesame seeds all night I toasted them till crispy & brown in the cast iron pan. Then I added them + olive oil, water, the chopped basil leaves, and salt to a bowl and mixed them with the immersion blender.
This is how it turned out;
This is a cream to use in meals over the next few days and to be kept in the fridge. Because I added water this won't really last more than 3 or 4 days. My goal here was to make a medicinal sauce with fresh basil rather than a conserve that can be kept in the freezer till winter.
Fresh basil is a medicinal ingredient. According to the book "Herbs" by Jessica Houdret, basil is antidepressant, antiseptic, and also soothing and has those affects on the physical body. The aromatic properties are important to. The scent is said to help keep us present in the current moment.
I chose to add this medicinal sauce as the base to some quick pizzas I threw together last night after a long day of working outdoors under the summer sun. The result was so delicious!