Homemade Pesto Sauce

[bethzaring]

for me, pesto making is a bit of a production, I make about 5 cups at a time. I keep between 1/2 pint and one pint in the frig and freeze the rest in 1/2 cups piles on waxed paper...when frozen I roll up the pesto blobs in the wax paper and put in a freezer bag. I can not detect any difference between the fresh and frozen pesto. I do not know why it is such a production, have roasted nuts on a waiting tray, olive oil drizzeled about, garlic wrappings stuck to my fingers, parmesan cheese clinging to the measuring cup and basil littering the sink area. I just do not want to do this very many times a season, about 5 times is all I can handle. I LOVE pesto available any time the mood strikes.... I never have pesto in the freezer over 9 months, I use it in too many ways

[cara]

Originally Posted by jennyema

Pesto is certainly a botulism risk if not handled properly. Here's more

*lol* thanks for the link... I searched german Google with the same (german) words and it brought me no countable results, there was only one page that said Botulism was found in pesto somewhere in the US...
the rest was a waste..

[jennyema]

Any fresh thing grown in soil which is kept in an anerobic environment without being heated or acidified is a suspect, I am pretty sure. The soil can contaminate the product and then the spores grow in the anerobic environment if kept at "danger zone" temps.

I agree with Beth that frozen pesto tastes pretty close to fresh.