The thing about basil is that once it gets going, you suddenly have way more than you know what to do with. Sure, there's insalata caprese or pasta caprese or anything caprese, but I have to admit I get a little bored. That classic combination is great--just not every day of summer. I've rounded up some recipes featuring basil used in alternative ways, whether it be as an infusion, in a fresh pasta dough, or simply featured in a chilled martini to sip on the porch. Given half a chance, basil can truly shine when it's not with its BFFs tomato and mozzarella....
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Note: On Thursdays, Babbo pastry chef Gina DePalma checks in with Seriously Italian. After a stint in Rome, she's back in the States, channeling her inner Italian spirit via recipes and intel on delicious Italian eats. Take it away, Gina! Last week, there was some scuttle on my Twitter timeline about fresh mint. It all started when @ruthreichl tweeted something she picked up from my friend Chris Cosentino of Incanto Restaurant in San Francisco; @offalchris told her that mint was the most widely used herb in Italy. How could that be true? The consensus was that surely basil or rosemary must hold that crown. I’m solidly with Chris on this one. Mint is indeed a universal ingredient in Italian cooking,...
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Photograph from kochtopf on Flickr With only a few more weeks left of summer foods, it's time to start preserving the bounty of the season before the cold dark months to come. One of the simplest and most delicious things you can do is marinate a good sheep or goat's milk feta in olive oil and fresh herbs, an ingenious combination that can last throughout the winter and beyond. Taking inspiration from David Lebovitz, here's a simple guide to marinating feta: Fill a Ball jar, or similar glass jar, with two-inch cubes of feta. Add some fresh herbs of your choosing: oregano, thyme, rosemary, bay leaves, mint, red chili flakes, and/or fresh pepper. You can really use your imagination...
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Yogi Tea One of the things I was most surprised to discover when I began reading about food and pregnancy was that not all herbal teas and infusions are safe for women who are expecting. Despite the evidence that many herbs have been known for millennia to affect human functioning for better or for worse, I vaguely believed that mind would triumph over matter when it came to anything I consumed in reasonable quantities—especially anything as anodyne as chamomile tea. After all, my coffee habit led me to drink five cups some days and allowed me to go without on others. No hot beverage was my master. Then I decided to give up caffeine for at least the first trimester....
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Photograph from Michael_L on Flickr I thought I had a basic understanding of oregano: I like a healthy dash on my pizza, and always in my feta-laden Greek salads. But I was wrong. I didn't know that I'm probably using O. heracleoticum, which has a pungent oregano-like taste. Unless O. viride, a seedless cousin, is what's living in my store-bought jar of dried oregano. Or maybe it's Origanum x majoricum, an Italian oregano-marjoram hybrid that the Herb Society of America likes best for culinary use. Margaret Roach of A Way to Garden learned her oregano lesson the hard way. She wanted to grow a supply of the versatile herb to cook with but didn't end up with what she was...
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I did a double-take when I first saw Sara's photo of basil liquor—my first impression was "mint" when I saw the green liquid, but the neighboring tomatoes gave me the sense that it was something else. Sara describes basilcello as "a very sweet basil liquor that will help take away your indigestion just like the best limoncello." Although anything with alcohol in it tends to give me indigestion, not take it away, I'm curious to find out what this tastes like. Read Sara's recipe to make your own basilcello!...
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Photograph from Paul Goyette on Flickr How often do you buy a pack of fresh herbs for a recipe only to leave the excess herbs in the refrigerator to wilt and decay? Even if those poor herbs who never get to realize their fullest flavor potential can't sense the pain of turning into a pool of brown mush, it's a waste on your part. How could you kill those defenseless herbs? How? Maybe you just didn't know how to keep them fresh. If you want to prevent future premature herbal death, read The Washington Post's article about how to preserve fresh herbs, written by Nick Kindelsperger and Blake Royer of The Paupered Chef. They suggest rinsing and drying herbs...
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