23 Sep Ham Pesto Pasta

In addition to the animals and hoop house, we also maintain decent-sized garden just for our family.  It’s more of a “traditional” garden with a variety of plants.  The garden inspired the farm and is something that I really enjoy.

Except this year, it has taken a back seat.

It’s not been bad.  In fact, I had some of my best garden moments this year.  I grew my first watermelon and cantaloup and they were so incredibly delicious.  I finally grew cabbage that wasn’t annihilated by bugs.  We have a few cute pumpkins.  Green beans and tomatoes did well.

And, I thought my basil wasn’t in the worst shape so I bought all the ingredients to make and freeze pesto.  With the exception of garlic… we have a ton on the farm and it’s so good.  Especially for pesto.

But, 24 hours later all I had was a skeleton of what used to be full basil plants.  I don’t know if it was a bug or a bunny, but it was all gone.  All of it.

So, while shopping on Market Wagon last week, I was excited to see that Falling Water’s Farm was selling basil… by the pound.  I figured a pound of basil would be a good amount, at least for the pesto that I wanted to make; but, I could have never imagined how much basil it really was.

It was a huge amount!  It was almost funny how much basil I had.

To process it all last week I had to run out and buy (three…) more containers of parmesan.

I froze the pesto in ice cube trays to have small servings for pasta and pizza this winter, but kept a bit in the refrigerator to use right away.

My mom used to always make a pesto pasta salad that was really basic, but so delicious.  So good in fact, that my little sister would- and still does- ask for it for her Birthday meal.  (She was a much easier and cheaper Birthday girl to please than me… I would ask for steak.)

With the pasta and pesto, my mom would add any left over vegetables like carrots, peas, or tomato.  But, she also always included diced ham.

I have found that the Bent Arrow ham steaks are great for this pasta.  They cook quickly in a skillet and then I just dice it.  Or, we like to cook one and serve it with eggs brunch so  I can use up whatever left overs we might have too.

So, using some of my newly made pesto, using Indiana basil, I whipped up my mom’s old staple and we had a great meal.  Give it a try at your home!

Ham Steaks and garlic are available at the farm, at the Downtown Kokomo Farmer’s Market and on MarketWagon.com.