This is a great way to preserve your basil in the freezer. We read about making cubes of basil, but this board method takes up less space for us.
First, rinse the basil and remove the leaves from the stems...
[img]https://somegeek.home.comcast.net/somegeek_basil_board_1.jpg[/img]
After straining, I put them into a salad spinner to separate any extra water from the leaves.
Next, roughly chop the leaves. This is not really necessary, however they will lay down a little better in the bag.
[img]https://somegeek.home.comcast.net/somegeek_basil_board_2.jpg[/img]
Toss with some olive oil. I used about 1/4C here.
[img]https://somegeek.home.comcast.net/somegeek_basil_board_3.jpg[/img]
Next, place into a zip top bag, lay flat and work the basil into a relatively even layer, place a cutting board on top, zip about 3/4 shut, press down to get out any extra air and then zip closed.
[img]https://somegeek.home.comcast.net/somegeek_basil_board_4.jpg[/img]
You have a board of basil. When you need some, you can easily break off chunks to thaw and cook with.
[img]https://somegeek.home.comcast.net/somegeek_basil_board_5.jpg[/img]
This is the biggest basil leaf I've seen in our garden so far.
[img]https://somegeek.home.comcast.net/somegeek_basil_board_6.jpg[/img]
Hope this helps someone pondering preserving their basil. It's nice to break this out for pizza or the like during the winter and get that almost fresh flavor of basil.
somegeek