What do you do with excess basil?

Drying is one way of preserving it but much of the real aroma of fresh basil is lost when it's dried. A better way of keeping the character of fresh basil is to chop it and freeze it, either in water or in olive oil. This is best done in an ice cube tray so that you can easily add a cube to your recipe. Another way of freezing it is to make pesto and freeze that in portion sizes. Pesto can be used as a simple sauce on pasta, in soups and in almost any dish which requires basil. In case you didn't know, the classic pesto is made with basil, olive oil, grated parmaggiano cheese and pine nuts but hazel nuts or walnuts also make a good pesto. Because of the oil content, pesto doesn't have as long a life frozen as freezing chopped basil in water.

I'd be happy to take some of that off your hands! My place is absolutely unsuited for growing herbs inside... or maybe that's just a convenient excuse because I'm a rotten gardener... Apparently it's possible to freeze basil, although I've never tried it. The trick seems to be to blanch it by dunking it into boiling water for a few seconds until it wilts, then transfer it to ice water to stop the cooking process. Pat it dry, strip the leaves off the stems, and put them into freezer bags. Then freeze them. You might be able to use vacuum freezer bags to store them for a longer period of time.

My only idea was to dry it. Even if you don't like it, you can still store it and give it to others. Most people use dried basil from the store anyway.

What kind of basil do you have?..I love mine and work with all my herbs..lil Greenwych i am..

Have you tried drying it out? And storing them in a tight sealed jar? That way you will have some on hand anytime you need it. (Just a thought, nothing more)

oh the blessin' 'f too much basil! i fear i fell into this myself this season. not a bad thingy, lettin' 'em go to flower 'n then seed. i can't waste to taste the honey after such a bountiful summer 'n all the diff'rent herbs 'n flowers the bees visited. as fer what to do with yer excess? ya can chop it up lightly 'n freeze in olive oil. i use ice cube trays fer such. once they're nice 'n frozen, jest pop 'em out 'n put 'em in an airtight container - grab one whene'er ya feel like it. or, ya can dry 'em 'n keep 'em in the freezer. all herbs hold their flavors best by doin' such. ya can make pesto 'n freeze that up, though i think its only good fer 'bout 3 months that way? i dry some fer my own dried herb concoctions, freeze some in either olive oil or butter (sometimes with other herbs - jest mark the bag so ya don't get a 'surprise'! mid winter) 'n some plants i bring in to o'er winter. nothin' beats fresh herbs durin' those cold winter days/nights to brighten up a meal.

I am happy to see that @Owlwings has come up with some helpful suggestions.

I would make pesto and then freeze the rest.

I'm not sure. My brother is the cook in our family. It does go in spaghetti, doesn't it? If so, I would make a big batch of spaghetti.

I wish that I knew. Sorry.

make a TON of pesto and freeze it! my friend's dad freezes his into ice cubes, for small portion sizes that you can use whenever! unfortunately thats my only suggestion :)