BASIL! No, it's not just become Faulty Towers

Now I love Basil - the herb; everything about it, the smell, taste, what you can use it in.  Maybe it's my love of Italian food - pizza's, pasta, tomatoes; see my earlier blog post with my tomato sauce recipe, just rip up a handful of leaves and throw them in.  So I decided to find out a bit more about it.

Ocimum basilicum to give it its latin name comes in several colours, from yellowish green, through green to purple, all of which produce white flowers in summer.

Gorgeous flowers on the purple variety

I pinched an idea from Monty Don of Gardeners World fame, who says he always plants his next to his tomatoes in the greenhouse, and I have done the same this year.  Plus I have just read, and I am quoting here from 'Growing Herbs', by Murdoch books; 'Basil is a popular companion plant with organic gardeners, who believe that planting it next to tomatoes and capsicum will improve their growth.'  So I guess Monty does know a thing or two after all!

I've just measured this one, the biggest one in the polytunnel and it stands 77cm tall!

The leaves are covered in small oil cells which gives the herb its strong flavour and aromatic smell and the flowers should be pinched out to preserve the smell.  It is an annual plant, that I find is best sown fresh every spring in a greenhouse.  It can be taken outside in warm summer, but I tend plant mine in the polytunnel or keep it in a pot on the kitchen windowsill.

Many myths and legends surround this wonderful herb; from being loved or truly hated; it has a link to scorpions of all things and was thought to be able to turn itself into one (!); and to tales that only beautiful women could cultivate it (obviously that's rubbish because Monty grows it so well!); it is classed as a Holy plant in its native country - India, being grown outside temples, laid on the chests of dead Hindu people, and used as a disinfectant and insect repellant.

It also has medicinal properties; being a useful soothant of travel sickness, or general stomach complaints, (make a tea from the leaves).

The most well known use is of course Pesto, made from your own leaves -
100g Fresh basil leaves
1 tbsp toasted pine nuts
75g Parmesan cheese
6 tbsps Good olive oil
2 large cloves of garlic
Salt and pepper to taste

Blend the basil, garlic and pine nuts to a pulp, either in a pestle and mortar or a liquidiser.
Alternately add a tablespoon of oil and then a tablespoon of cheese until it is blended together.
Season with salt and pepper to your liking.
Serve through hot pasta, with salad from your garden, including lots of tomatoes.  Yum!

Stats today -

Eggs produced = 11

Sales -
1 dozen tomatoes £1.80
1 x Mint herb plant £0.50

Expenses -
Nil

My Tomato sauce recipe

Don't know about you, but I love tomato sauce, it goes with loads of things.

This recipe is dead easy and I use it on pizza's, as a sauce for pasta, the basis of a spaghetti bolognese, lasagne and even as a starter for a stew.

You can use home grown tomatoes and I do when I have loads of them in the polytunnel, but at other times of the year tinned are brilliant.

1 x tin of tomatoes - chopped or whole, it doesn't matter
1 shallot or small onion
Large handful of fresh basil, I use green and purple basil or dried will do at a push
Freshly ground pepper and salt
Good olive oil

• Chop onion finely.
• Heat up a good splash of olive oil, and then fry onion gently until soft
• Add a few generous twists of freshly ground pepper and a pinch of salt, keep stirring
• Add the tin of tomatoes and chop up with wooden spoon if not already chopped, bring it up to a boil, then turn down the heat to a simmer, don't forget to taste it occasionally for seasoning.
• Rip the basil from the stalks and stir into the sauce, it will wilt down further as it cooks.
• Leave it to simmer away for at least twenty minutes until a lot of the liquid has evaporated and you are left with a good thick sauce.

At this point you can use it, or freeze it, or blitz it down further to a smooth paste to use on pizza bases.  It does taste better the day after making as the flavour develops.  I also like to add a good splash of extra virgin olive oil at the end to stir through, just to give it a little more 'italian' flavour!

Enjoy!

Stats today - 

Eggs produced = 13

Sales - 

2 dozen eggs - £3.90

Expenses -

Nil