I have found basil to be one of the most useful herbs in the kitchen and it pairs beautifully with garlic as a basis for many dishes, especially italian style sauces,salads etc. It is unfortunately an annual herb so you must grow it every year and it can only be harvested in the summer. It can be grown from seed in a sunny position in your kitchen quite easily or if you prefer many supermarkets stock plants already grown.
Basil likes to be picked, and to lengthen the harvesting period it helps if you nip the very pretty flower buds off as soon as they appear. I find that if you nip off the small leaves at the tops then the resulting growth is thicker and has more leaves. As the plant tastes quite different when dried it can be picked and painted on both sides using olive oil and then frozen and used when needed.To get the full flavour in your cooking add it at the last minute torn into pieces. Basil has many uses, not just in cooking.If you place pots on your windowsills in summer it deters flies (they mustn't like the smell).
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
I love basil. I put it in salads and on tomatoes with mozzarella! OOhh lovely herb, Love Kayla xxx
JeanetteMuff 09.06.2002 04:58
Nicely put, although a little brief. You could add some info on what sort of recipes benefit from having basil added (eg tomato dishes) & typical other uses (like pesto), to improve your rating. Cheers! Jeanette
Mar 9th, 2001
very helpful by (71%):
helpful by (29%):
