Basil

Used in 8 recipes on RecipeWiki.

Sweet basil is the soft, bright green herb of Italian cooking, with a scent somewhere between pepper, clove and anise. This page covers the leaves, whether a few torn over a pizza or a large handful for a sauce. Its flavour is volatile and fades with long cooking, so it usually goes in at the end or raw: pounded with garlic, oil and cheese for Basil Pesto, or scattered over a Classic Margherita Pizza. Tear rather than chop to limit bruising. Keep a bunch at room temperature with its stems in water; the fridge blackens the leaves.

What else can I make with it?

Most often cooked with

Recipes with basil

Basil Pesto — shot from directly overhead, the table surface filling the frame

Basil Pesto

Basil, pine nuts, garlic and cheese pounded to a coarse sauce, kept cold throughout so the leaves stay green instead of bruising brown.

30 minutesBasicsCheese

Classic Margherita Pizza — shot from directly overhead: three toppings

Classic Margherita Pizza

Three toppings, nothing hidden — this is the pizza that shows whether your dough is any good.

4 hr 42 minServes 2

CheeseDinnerItalian

Minestrone — shot from directly overhead: a chunky vegetable soup built on a slow soffritto

Minestrone

A chunky vegetable soup built on a slow soffritto, with beans and small pasta simmered in the broth so it thickens as it stands.

1 hr 25 minServes 6

Leafy greensItalianPasta

by brightosprey

Pasta alla Norma — shot from directly overhead: fried aubergine folded through a simple tomato sauce with torn basil and salted ricotta

Pasta alla Norma

Fried aubergine folded through a simple tomato sauce with torn basil and salted ricotta, which is the ingredient the dish stands or falls on.

DinnerItalianMain courses

Pork and Fennel Meatballs — shot from directly overhead: pork mince bound with a milk and bread panade and toasted fennel seed

Pork and Fennel Meatballs

Pork mince bound with a milk and bread panade and toasted fennel seed, browned in a pan and finished in tomato sauce.

1 hr 45 minServes 4

CheeseItalianMain courses

Roast Tomato Soup — shot from directly overhead: tomatoes roasted hard with garlic until the edges blacken

Roast Tomato Soup

Tomatoes roasted hard with garlic until the edges blacken, then blitzed, so the flavour concentrates instead of thinning out in a pan of stock.

1 hr 10 minServes 4

by velvetlapwing

Salted Tomato Salad — shot from directly overhead: ripe tomatoes salted twenty minutes ahead

Salted Tomato Salad

Ripe tomatoes salted twenty minutes ahead, then dressed with the juice that draws out of them rather than plain oil.

Side dishesTomatoesVegan

Simple Tomato Sauce — shot from directly overhead, the table surface filling the frame

Simple Tomato Sauce

Tinned tomatoes crushed by hand and cooked slowly with garlic until the oil splits back out, which is when the sauce is done.

BasicsItalianSauces

by brightosprey