Discovering herbs
Cultivating an affection for sweet basil
I have always loved plants — as an observer. It took me a long time to learn to love to eat vegetables as well as to grow them, and even longer to discover the joy of taking culinary herbs out of the garden and actually cooking with them. I’m still just a fledgling, and learning slowly, but the satisfaction has been well worth the wait.
Right now, I’m enraptured by sweet basil. A little tricky to start from seed, this aromatic, herbal staple is easy to grow. I have three sweet basil plants growing in a self-watering planter on the patio, and a purple basil tucked into a plain old plastic flowerpot. (I bought the plants at the annual Herb Sale in Chester Springs this past May.) It’s sunny and warm out on the patio, and the plants are doing well there.
My first culinary experience with basil was in pesto, served over cheese tortellini. Delicious! I now use pesto in other dishes as well, for instance on baked potatoes, in scrambled eggs and omelets, or simply spread on slices of crusty bread.
Using pesto from the grocery store is pretty removed from basil in the garden, but it took me until this year to try making my own. I don’t know why I thought that making pesto would be
difficult. All that’s needed are a handful of ingredients — plenty of fresh basil leaves, pine nuts, olive oil, grated Parmesan cheese, and lemon juice, plus salt and pepper.
You can use a recipe, or simply start with a fairly well-packed cup of basil and about half a cup of pine nuts, and go from there. Put the basil and nuts into a food processor and drizzle in oil as the blades spin. When you’ve added enough oil for the consistency you want, add the Parmesan, plus freshly-squeezed lemon juice, salt, and pepper, all to taste.
While adding a few crushed mint leaves to a glass of iced tea is arguably the easiest use of a culinary herb, making a Caprese salad probably comes in second. This is something my fiancé, Charlie, introduced me to last year; first at a restaurant, and then creating it at home using fresh, hydroponically-grown basil from the grocery store.
It’s so easy. Slice some vine-ripened tomatoes, then cut up enough fresh, soft, mozzarella cheese so that there is one slice of cheese for each piece of tomato. Pick the same number of basil leaves. Layer the three ingredients on top of each other, tomato, mozzarella, and then basil. Drizzle with olive oil. You can also add a splash of balsamic vinegar and some freshly-ground black pepper.
The basil I’m talking about is sweet basil (Ocimum basilicum). Purple basil
varieties are cultivars of sweet basil, and can be used for cooking in much the same way. You may have heard of Holy Basil. This is Ocimum tenuiflorum (sometimes referred to as Ocimum sanctum). My son’s girlfriend, Carlene, introduced me to this medicinal herb in the form of “tulsi tea.” The flavor of the tea is mellow, almost sweet. Unlike “real” tea, from the shrub Camellia sinensis, tulsi tea has a calming effect on the nervous system, counteracting anxiety.
As I’ve been learning to cook with basil, I’ve also learned how to make it into what the French call “chiffonade,” thin, ribbon-like strips of leaves. This is a great way to use basil in salads. And it’s easy. Simply make a stack of five or six leaves. Roll them up lengthwise to form a small bundle; it will look like a miniature, green cigar. With a sharp knife, make thin slices across the bundle. Basil is tender, and wilts easily after being cut, so make this the last ingredient you prepare, just before serving. And if you don’t already, try growing a pot of basil next year.