Basil Salad Dressing

I was informed by my bestie that she had a bumper crop of basil that needed to be dealt with.  I am more than happy to help "deal" with this problem...

This past week we spent a good part of a day making this:

This isn't all mine. But, I was lucky enough to get the bigger half.

We made absolutely no dent in the "hedgerow" of basil. So, we will be doing this, again, very soon. Now I have to get motivated to separate it into smaller amounts and freeze it for later use.

And since there was so much basil, I was able to bring home a bunch for a bouquet and then to make "Basil Salad Dressing."

The recipe came out of the book Joy of Gardening Cookbook by Janet Ballantyne...

I doubled the recipe and made a couple changes because I lacked the required ingredients.  I didn't have any wine vinegar, but, according to my substitution book lemon juice can be used.  I used 2 tablespoons of lemon juice and 2 tablespoons of cider vinegar. It is a salad dressing and vinegar is a requirement in my book.  I also used the regular basil and a few sprigs of purple basil.  I think I may have inadvertently gone light on the olive oil.  I was reading the recipe off of the picture on my computer and only added 1/2 cup of olive oil instead of 1 1/2 cups.  It was thick and tasted great with lettuce leaves.  I was far to lazy and it was far to hot to make a "real" salad.  I might add the rest of the olive oil, so it is more dressing-ey.  But, maybe I won't, since it tastes fine just the way it is.

That's it for today. Till next time...