Basil–It’s Perfect!

My little basil plant, what’s left of it after picking.

If there is one herb that I dearly love, it is basil.  I love the beautiful shiny leaves, I love smell of it, and I love the taste of it.  It’s perfect.  If I could only plant two things, it would be tomatoes, and what goes perfectly with tomatoes???  BASIL. 

I love bruschetta and there are lots of “recipes” out there, but I love to put it together by taste–no recipe.  I add chopped tomatoes, the more juice the merrier, finely diced garlic (I cannot emphasize strongly enough the word finely), a little bit of olive oil, and balsamic, salt and pepper.  I just taste as I add the ingredients and if it needs a little more balsamic, I add it in.  Proportions of olive oil to tomatoes are up to you.  I don’t add much, maybe a teaspoon per 1 1/2 cups tomatoes, but again, that is personal preference.  I often reduce my balsamic to make more of  a syrup which sweetens it up a tad.  Also delicious.  I often eat this just like a cold soup, but traditionally it is served with baguette toast slices.

Another bruschetta I like is totally different.  Simple.  Toast baguette slices very lightly, in fact, just dried will be fine.  Rub a clove of garlic lightly over the toasted bread.  Add slices of fresh tomatoes over the bread.  Add a pinch of shredded parmesan cheese, just a little, and a few shreds of basil.  Drizzle a tiny bit of olive oil over the tomatoes, and a bit of sea salt.  Pop under the broiler.  Broil until the tomatoes are slightly softened.   The basil will blacken  so if you prefer, you can add the basil after cooking.

I love a simple Caprese Salad.  Sliced fresh mozzarella interspersed with fresh tomato slices arranged around a plate.   Reduce balsamic vinegar till syrup and drizzle artfully over the cheese and tomatoes.  Drizzle olive oil to taste over the cheese, too.  Chiffonade basil and sprinkle the shreds around the plate.

And PESTO!!!!  Another favorite.  There are all manner of pesto recipes on the internet, but the one I love the most is my sister-in-law’s recipe.  I made a double batch this week and put it in the freezer for future winter nights.  I may not put much more in the freezer this year because I have several left from last year.  I used some a couple weeks ago and it was still delicious.   Here’s the thing about pestos…………….they are laden with high fat ingredients.  So I try to only use pesto when celebrating with a special meal.  But if fat was not a factor, this would be on my table once a week, I love it that much!

Another new recipe I have acquired is a burger recipe with 1/2 cup basil.  What could be better……….gourmet burger deluxe.  We loved this recipe so much that it is now in my recipe file.  I have served these burgers twice this week and hubby loved them.

I could go on and on about basil……………a relatively new plant to me, but wait, I have.  So I will let you have your own dreams about basil.  How about adding some to your next sandwich or, better yet, how about making a basil aioli. 

Basil – it’s perfect.

I love you.