How can I preserve homemade pesto?

[TR888]

I've just made the most delicious wild garlic pesto. It's made me want to make mountains of it now that wild garlic is everywhere; if I preserve it, then I could use it in winter when there's less exciting food around.

The problem is, pesto is not cooked, so you wouldn't be able to preserve it like a jam, for example. What's the best way? I'd rather avoid freezing it as I haven't got much freezer space. Thanks.

A layer of olive oil on top will help it last longer

Extra virgin

Are you me ?
I've done the very same today !
I've put some in an ice cube tray to freeze and pop out to keep in a freezer bag so we'll have handy small portions.
Tomorrow I shall make Cheese and wild garlic scones with some of the wild garlic I have left over .

I've got a lot of tiny plastic pots for things like this - they'll squeeze into the tiniest space in the freezer.

It's made 42 cubes of it and doesn't take up much freezer space.

Thank you for your answers! I wonder how shop-bought pesto is preserved. Jars would be much easier for me, as I really haven't got much space in my freezer at all.

By the way, how do you use your wild garlic pesto? I usually serve it as a pasta sauce, but it must have other uses I'm not thinking of.

Can you post the recipe please. We have masses of wild garlic growing near me.

You need small jars, fill well whilst the pesto is hot, pasturise in a water bath, float a bit of oil on top and seal with new lids whilst still very hot.

If you have never done bottling before, it is probably best to freeze in small portions.

I freeze pesto but that doesn't help you! It is nice on new potatoes as well as on pasta and I used some I stead of tomato sauce on a pizza last week with fresh sliced tomatoes on top. That was delicious!

The recipe is this: www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/wild-pesto%3famp

Not sure if that'll work - it's from the BBC Good Food website anyway. A brilliant tip is to fold in the cheese with the pesto after you've blend it, rather than blending it with the leaves. That way it doesn't go cloudy and the texture is much better.

As for potting the pesto whilst it's hot - pesto is uncooked. If you hear it up, it must lose its freshness, or doesn't it?

Yep, heating pesto will make it cloudy but apart from freezing is the only way to get a long shelf life.
Topping with oil and refrigerating will give it a few weeks.

We freeze ours. Shop jars will be pasteurized (or probably cooked like tins to sterilize) to preserve them, that's why they taste funny.

Rapeseed oil!!!
Sacrilege. Extra virgin all the way for me.

This recipe contains garlic as well as wild garlic, so if you want to preserve it you must freeze it.

Garlic is a low-acid vegetable, which makes it ideal for culturing Clostridium botulinum, the bacteria that causes botulism. As long as the bacterium is exposed to oxygen, it cannot develop the spores which secrete the toxin, so garlic itself is perfectly safe. However, when garlic is placed in oil or fat, an anaerobic environment is created, and if the bacteria is present, it can cause botulism in anyone who consumes the product.

Freshly prepared oil, used immediately, is also safe, as the bacteria have no time to grow. Fresh products can also be refrigerated and used safely for up to one week.

Contaminated garlic in oil tastes, smells, and looks just like a product which is perfectly safe, which makes it even more dangerous.

Gin your preserving knowledge is good. But, don't knock rapeseed oil, it is rather good stuff, nutty taste, high smoke point, takes a lot longer than nut oils to oxidise www.farrington-oils.co.uk/can-you-cook-with-cold-pressed-rapeseed-oil

TR888 how about just freezing some wild garlic and have the option to use it in winter.
If you have a dehydrator, you could try drying some. I think it is too fleshy for air drying.

Keep a look out for three cornered leeks, they come up over winter, have a good taste and can be used for pesto. Do not introduce them to your garden, they are very invasive, they grow freestyle in many places.

Another winter taste option is celeriac leaves.

It's just personal taste. I really dislike the taste of rapeseed oil. I don't cook with EV olive oil, I just use it for salads and drizzling, but rapeseed oil just has a nasty, rancid taste to me.

I actually used sunflower oil and no garlic - absolutely no need as the wild garlic is garlicky enough! It's so flavoursome that you don't need the added note of olive oil, in my opinion.

Thanks for the tip. I will leave the garlic out. I might use a mixture of light olive oil and EV olive oil.

Mine keeps in the fridge easily for a couple of weeks. If the top layer discolour it can just be scraped off.