Purple Basil Pesto & the Easiest White Bean Appetizer Dip / Spread Recipe Ever

Purple Is the New Green

I have no idea how it happened, but spring 2007 found me and my kitchen garden completely basilless. Thankfully a gardening friend (whose tiny city garden I usually supply with plants) was kind enough to share a couple of basil seedlings with me, including a purple one. I'm not very adventurous when it comes to herbs, and I'd never grown purple basil, but begging gardeners can't be choosers so I gratefully took what he offered and stuck it in the ground.

The purple basil plant flourished. It was absolutely gorgeous, but I didn't know what to do with it. I love fresh basil in all kinds of dishes, and I loved the color of these leaves, especially how they're outlined in green, but the thought of blackish purple basil pesto — or blackish purple basil anything for that matter — just didn't seem appealing.

My foodie friend Kat (don't miss her scrumptious new food blog, She's In The Kitchen) suggested I make basil vinegar with it: You fill a large jar with half white vinegar, half cider vinegar, then stuff it with purple basil and let it steep for a week. Strain it and pour the resulting gorgeous magenta vinegar into a pretty bottle with a few sprigs of fresh basil. That sounded nice, but I wasn't sure what I would do with the vinegar either.

I decided to appeal to my garden blog readers, begging them to tell me what they would do if they had a beautiful purple basil plant in their garden. They quickly came to my rescue with all sorts of delicious ideas, including:

— Add it to a white bean salad with some red peppers and green onions

— Throw it into a pot of beans, tomatoes, potatoes, zuchinni, and onion

— Put it in a red sauce made from fresh tomatoes

— Garnish anything that the flavor of basil will complement

— Stir into a slaw of chopped carrots, fennel bulb, and garlic just before serving

— Make purple basil lemonade or, better still, purple basil watermelon/honeydew melon agua fresca

Soilman in England suggested I put it in Mussels à l'Italienne and even offered up his recipe: Chopped onions sweated in olive oil for a few minutes. Add a few glugs of white wine and lots of chopped tomatoes plus tomato purée. Pour your mussels (cleaned and de-bearded) in, cover and cook for 5-10 minutes. Put into bowls with lots of chopped purple basil.

I couldn't wait to tell my city friend that I'd figured out what we could do with our purple basil. He listened patiently with a slight smile on his face as I recounted all these creative ideas. Then he said, "I turned mine into pesto."

"Oh yeah?"

"It was the best basil pesto I've ever had."

"Really?"

"It was like pesto on steroids."

"Wow."

"And it wasn't even that weird of a color."

"Huh."

So I skipped all the wonderful suggestions and turned my entire purple basil plant into the best pesto I've ever tasted instead.


Homemade Purple Basil Pesto On Homemade Pizza

Low Fat, Full Flavor Purple Basil Pesto
Makes about 1-1/2 cups

1/2 cup (about 2-1/2 ounces) roasted & salted whole almonds
4 ounces fresh purple basil leaves (about 4 cups packed, but it's best if you weigh it — I love my Salter 5-pound digital scale)
3 to 6 large cloves garlic, peeled and coarsely chopped
1/2 cup finely grated Pecorino Romano (or other hard) cheese
10 ounces fresh tomatoes (about 3 smallish) any kind, quartered
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 Tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

Mix all ingredients except the olive oil in a food processor until thoroughly combined and the consistency you like. Alternatively, you can use a gigantic mortar and pestle if you're trying to build up your arm muscles. With the food processor running, drizzle in the olive oil through that chute thingie. Add more salt to taste if necessary. Store pesto in the refrigerator for several days or freeze.

Except for the fact that purple basil isn't as pretty as the green and does make a rather oddly colored pesto (as you can see in the photo above), I would probably quit growing the green stuff altogether. Mixing a few green leaves into the pesto does help brighten it up a bit.

Unfortunately my friend couldn't remember what kind of purple basil we were growing, so I figure I'll just work my way through every purple variety I can find and do some scientific taste comparisons. There are even certain types of basil plants that are half purple and half green.

I didn't forget to plant basil seeds this year, though I did get a rather late start. Five different types of basil - including Purple Ruffles and Purple Osmin - plus a mixed variety surprise pack are just now sprouting in little containers, but I have high hopes for a bumper summer crop. (And besides, my tomatoes won't be ready for ages either.) I might even turn part of my purple basil harvest into something other than pesto. But don't hold your breath, especially since I've discovered such a delicious way to use it.


Homemade Pita Chips: Tastier Than Storebought & Made in Minutes

Beyond Easy White Bean Pesto Dip / Spread
Opening a bag of cheez doodles and pouring them into a bowl would probably be a slightly easier appetizer to make than this, but they wouldn't taste nearly as good - or be as good for you. This stuff isn't exactly beautiful, but trust me when I say that no one will notice.

The consistency of this spread will vary depending on the type of beans you use, how well you drain them after rinsing, and the thickness of your pesto. I made one batch with Great Northern beans and a slightly thinner pesto and ended up with a dip rather than a spread. If it's too thick for your liking, simply thin it out with a little olive oil or water.

Cans of organic beans are a staple in my farmhouse pantry. They're readily available in natural foods stores and most supermarkets and can often be found for the bargain price of about a dollar apiece. Some places such as Whole Foods will even give you a case discount if you stock up and buy 12 cans at a time.

1 15-ounce can organic white beans, such as cannellini (white kidney beans), drained and rinsed
1/2 cup homemade or purchased basil pesto
1/2 cup finely grated Pecorino Romano or other hard Italian cheese
Salt to taste

Combine beans, pesto, and cheese in the bowl of a food processor and whiz until smooth. Salt to taste. Serve with pita chips (check out my easy recipes for homemade pita chips and pita bread, plus easy pita pizzas), crackers, raw veggies, or a spoon.

This spread improves with age, so try to make it a day ahead. Of course then you'll also have to try not to gobble it all up before serving time comes, but fortunately the recipe can easily be doubled.

After coming up with this recipe while my foodie mother was visiting last fall, I've become slightly obsessed with white bean dips. Sometimes I even have them as a main course (because I eat so much I don't have any room left for the actual main course). It turns out that almost anything can be successfully mixed with a can of white beans (where have I been?), and I'll be sharing some of my other favorite creations soon.

Related posts:
How To Keep Your Basil Growing Into Fall
6/25/06: Beautiful Basil Seedlings in the Greenhouse
7/25/06: Volunteer Basil in the Kitchen Garden
8/10/06: Basil Gone Wild - and Happy Pollinators

Other Farmgirl Fare basil recipes and appetizers you might enjoy:
Savory Tomato Pesto Pie with a No-Fail Biscuit Crust
Fresh Tomato Pesto Pizza & A Simple Tomato Salad
Fresh Tomato & Basil Whole Wheat Sourdough Bread
Simple Fresh Tomato Pizza Sauce (no blanching required)
The Easiest Greek Salad Ever
Colors of Summer Salad with Fresh Basil
Summer in a Bowl with Fresh Basil
Fiesta Cottage Cheese Veggie Dip
Hot Swiss Chard Artichoke Dip
How To Make Arugula Pesto & What To Do with It
All About Chives & How To Make Herbed Yogurt Cheese

Still hungry?
You'll find links to all my sweet and savory Less Fuss, More Flavor recipes in the sidebar of the Farmgirl Fare homepage under Previous Posts: Food Stuff W/ Recipes. Enjoy!

This is my entry for Weekend Herb Blogging, a tasty and informative event created nearly 3 years ago by my foodie friend Kalyn, and hosted this week by Kalyn herself. You'll find this week's roundup at Kalyn's Kitchen. Want to join in the WHB fun? Check out the Rules For Weekend Herb Blogging.

© Copyright 2008 FarmgirlFare.com, the award-winning blog where Farmgirl Susan shares stories & photos of her crazy country life on 240 remote Missouri acres - and there can never be too much fresh basil, no matter what the color.