My dad and I have managed to kill almost everything in our garden. Well, we and the army of small critters growing fat off our labors. You think mint is impossible to slay? Oh, not at our house. Do you have so many zucchini you’re leaving them on your neighbor’s doorstep in the night? No idea what that’s like. Are you like dang, I don’t know what to do with all my beautiful tomatoes, or peaches? I don’t want to hear about it. Our garden produces one cherry tomato a day, and two evil squirrels and their chipmunk friend picked the peaches green, took one bite, then threw the poor things on the ground to rot. 

HOWEVER, as our veggies were decimated by animals and our herbs withered away from some mysterious illness that made their leaves all leathery, one plant held on. It is possibly the most important summer plant because we use it every day – basil. Our basil has not only survived, but thrived! We’ve had four strong plants for almost three months now and they look good, like green and happy and abundant.

So, since basil is literally the only piece of edible greenery left standing, I want to talk basil and cheese. Whoever said gardening was “calming” never had to deal with our garden Thunderdome of death and destruction. But I am over it, clearly. 

While basil and cheese are very good friends in many forms, my favorite is pesto. Pesto is especially fun to play with because we can endlessly change the cheese, nuts, and spicing. The classic, of course, is made with Parmigiano Reggiano. For a gentle twist on the classic, use Podda Misto in place of Parmigiano Reggiano, and Marcona almonds in place of pine nuts. Podda is also an Italian cheese, but it is a mixture of sheep and cow’s milk, so there’s a little added grassiness from the sheep’s milk alongside the sweetness from the cow’s milk. The olive oily, salty Marconas are a nice swap with the classic pine nut, adding a toastier flavor to the pesto.

There are really so many firm, salty, Italian cheeses that would be great in a pesto, but let’s go a little farther outside the box. There’s nutty Manchego for something mellow, or sharp, bright Tarentaise Reserve for a brighter sauce. Add a dot of Hillside Harvest hot sauce to either version for extra zip.

If you want to make the sauce richer, try pesto with cashews and Coolea. The cashews are ultra-creamy and the gouda style cheese tastes like butterscotch, hazelnuts and bourbon, making this version an excellent spread for a ham sandwich, or blopped on top of a bowl of roasted vegetables. You know, we could just keep going! Forever, probably! But I will leave our pesto discussion for now because I have to go chase the freaking squirrels off the bench in the Thunderdome/garden.

Oh! And for those of you who are not inclined to make your own pesto from scratch, this Pesto alla Genovese from La Favorita Figh is one of the best jarred pestos we’ve ever tasted – trust us, it’s hard to resist just eating it all straight from the jar with a spoon. 

For the love of cheese and our strong, determined basil,

Kiri

P.S. I am very excited about the new cookbook I just got called Meals, Music, and Muses: Recipes from My African American Kitchen by Alexander Smalls with Veronica Chambers. Alexander Smalls has somehow managed to be the chef-owner of FOUR restaurants in New York, write multiple cookbooks, and, oh right, become a world renowned opera singer with a Grammy and Tony under his belt. And I thought shaking my fist at the rodents in our garden was a big day… He organized the cookbook into sections with music genres titles so you get an idea of the feel of the recipes. I can’t WAIT to try Charleston Black Beans in the Gospel section, Seared Grouper with Spicy Gumbo Sauce from Opera, and, be still my heart, Bourbon Chocolate Praline Truffles from the Serenades section.