Basil

Had dinner with friends on Saturday night and our hosts had a most envious basil bush in their herb garden. After listening to me ramble on about all the cooking possibilities for most of the evening, I woke up the next morning to find a huge bag of the stuff on my door step; I am loving the fact that my kitchen smells a little bit like Italy and I have lots planned for it:



Basil Oil - ridiculously easy but so useful to have in the kitchen. I will be using it to sex-up pastas, risottos and salads, also for homemade pizzas and bruschetta.

Pesto - Mmmm pesto. Pesto does not need to be limited to pasta or gnocchi, I'll be using it as a coating for chicken in salads, using it in soups, stuffing chicken breasts, again bruschetta. YUM!

Also try - serving basil with mozzarella and tomato drizzled with olive oil for a simple salad, pasta salads, stuffing meat etc

Basil Oil
Take a clean jar or bottle and losely pack with basil leaves, pour over olive oil. Unlike other flavoured oils when using soft herbs like basil you need cold olive oil rather than warm. After a couple of weeks strain and rebottle.

Pesto
2 cloves of garlic
500ml basil leaves compact but don't squish them down too much
50g pinenuts
50g Parmesan cheese, grated
150ml olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

In a blender whizz together the garlic and basil, then add the pinenuts and parmesan whizz again. Then pour in the oil with the motor running. Season to taste.

It is best kept in the fridge, it will last longer if you make sure there is always a thin layer of oil at the top of the jar.

Tomato Salsa - chiffonade your basil, then add to concasse tomatoes, garlic and finely chopped shalots with a good glug of olive oil.*


* Excuse the cookery lingo:
Chiffonade - lay individual basil leaves on top of one another then roll up from the stem end and slice thinly
Concasse - cut the tomato into quarters, remove the seeds (a teaspoon is excellent for this) and then finely dice.)