It has been a good year for my basil plants.
So good, in fact, that I’ve been kept kinda busy coming up with ways to use it before it takes over the front porch and totally obscures the dwarf Japanese maple which – I think – is protecting the ever bolder basil from the beetle attacks of years past. Got beetles on your basil? Forget the sprays and stuff, get yourself a Japanese maple and stick it in a pot next to the basil.
No beetles.
Once the leaves have fallen off in the fall, just tuck the maple in a corner of the garage until next year, you’re good to go with your anti-beetle basil bulwark.
But, back to the potatoes…
I’d made pesto for naan caprese pizzas. Then I’d used some as part of a salad with roasted tomatoes from teh garden.
And I still had basil and pesto to deal with! It was time for something different…
INGREDIENTS
•3 lb small golden potatoes
•1/2 tsp sea salt
•1 tsp Aleppo pepper
•1/2 tsp black (Tellicherry) pepper
•1/2 cup (packed) pesto
•Worcestershire sauce
•Cajun Power Spicy Garlic Pepper Sauce
– or your favorite hot sauce
•Butter
Heat oven to 450º.
Wash the potatoes, cut into quarters, place in large pot, cover with cold water, and set aside to soak for 15 minutes – the water will look a bit cloudy, and that’s a good thing.
Drain and rinse the potatoes, then toss the potatoes with the sea salt, Aleppo and black pepper to coat, then with the pesto.
Arrange the potatoes in a single layer in a large, foil-lined baking pan.
Full Disclosure: mine were a bit crowded in a 13×9 pan), but turned out OK.
Bake for 40 minutes on the bottom rack, stirring after 20 minutes.
Remove from the oven, add Worcestershire and Cajun Power (or your preferred hot sauce) to taste, then return to the oven – on the top rack this time – for a last 20 minutes.
Dot with butter, toss when it melts, and serve.
Nice.
We enjoyed ours the first night with bourbon marinaded grilled pork and chicken; then the next day, mebbe enjoyed them a bit better when I added them to a butter chicken simmer sauce packet we were checking out. Served over more of that nice naan, we were more than pleased.
And I have a few more ways to enjoy my basil.