I have some fresh basil, what can i use it with?

Question

It smells lovely and i'd like to use it in a dish but not sure what?
Does anyone know of any tasty recipes using basil?

Answer 1

basil goes really well with any tomatoe based dish...tinned tomatoes, loads of garlic, pasta cooked in a little olive oil, topped with some pecorino cheese...delish and simple

Answer 2

Minced with mozerella chunks and sliced red onions, it makes a great tomato-filler. Just mix it all together, hollow out a tomato and fill it up. Drizzle with vinniagrette or even just a bit of plain vinegar and mild-flavored olive oil. Some prefer ranch or bleu cheese, but that doesn't go so well to me - your tastes may vary.

Alternatively, you can use musrhoom caps instead of tomatos. If you do, I'd recommend baking as mushroom caps always seem to taste better heated and still-warm. Either mushroom caps or tomatos can be baked - I'd recommend putting a slice of mozerella or provolone over it _just_ big enough to cover it up. Tomatoes should be broiled at high temperature just until the cheese starts to brown, but the mushroom cap variety is actually better baked at around 250-275 F for about 10 minutes. If you like crabmeat, that goes great in this sort of dish - I'd recommend the chunky kind of crabmeat for the tomato variation, and minced "crabcake" meat for the mushroom caps.

This can all be made without the basil, too, but the basil really does pull all the ingredients together -quite- nicely.

Another idea for basil - and this might sound strange to some - is to pick some fresh mint, mix roughly 3 parts mint with about 1 part basil and make some fresh mint tea from it (simmer it on low for about 10 minutes stirring gently once every minute or so). Sweetened, I find the basil adds a distinctive and enjoyable flavor. This only really works with fresh basil, though - dried basil isn't even 1/8th as good in this particular drink. If you like citrus with it, the only kind that really goes good with basil/mint tea is mild orange flavor, at least imho.

Answer 3

Tonight I am making a dish that uses fresh basil. Chopped onion and garlic fried in a little oil. Add small chinks of chorizio sausage, a few chilli flakes and tinned of chopped tomatoes. Boil some pasta and drain. Chop some mzarella into chunks. Mix tomato and chorizio sausage sauce with the pasta and add the mozarella and then gently stir in some torn basil leaves. Put in oven dish and cover loosely with foil and bake in oven for 15mins...yumm!

Or you could make a tricolore salad. Layer on a plate sliced buffalo mozzarella with sliced buffalo tomatoes, sprinle with basil leaves and drizzle with olive oil.

Or a really good recipe is for basil pesto, you can use this on pasta, chicken and all sorts really and is super simple, just out the ingredidents below in a blender and blitz until a thickish, so that it wouldn't run off a spoon, if too thick add ore oil. (tip, add oil after blitzing other ingredients a little then add oil gradually.)

bunch of basil
2 tbsp pine nuts
1 clove garlic
4 tbsp olive oil
salt and freshly ground black pepper
small bunch of parsley

Good luck and enjoy!

Answer 4

A fresh basic recipe:

1. Take the basil and tear off the leaves.
2. Cut a ripe tomato (roma) into slices.
3. Place the tomato slices on a plate. Add, fresh mozzarella cheese (also sliced), and place the basil leaves on top.
4. drizzle olive oil on the top and dash some salt and black pepper to taste.

5. This can also be a wonderful sandwich - if you get a good french or italian bread - preferabbly with a hard crust.

Answer 5

Butterfly some boneless/skinless chicken breasts, season with a littl kosher salt and some ground pepper. Cover in a layer of basil leaves and put some roasted red bell bepper and feta cheese to one side, then roll the breast up with all the goodies in the middle. Spray a little cooking spray in a baking dish and place the chicken rolls in the dish. Drizzle some dry white wine over the top of the rols, maybe crumble a little more feta cheese and some chopped basil.

A little white wine vinaigrette drizzled on at serving adds a litlle extra zing as well.

Bake at 350 for about 35-40 minutes, serve hot, or chill in the fridge for a couple hours and serve that way. Slice the rolls into 4 or five slices when serving, they look great that way

Answer 6

Good question, got some good Recipe websites.

I have large pot of Basil and as long as I keep pinching back it last for ever. It is much more fragrant then what you buy at the store. Just don't keep it in the house or you'll be hungry all the time.LoL
Once you cook with fresh herbs you will be hooked.
I have a simple Tomato Basil Soup. A good can of basic tomato soup, add 1cup of fresh unseeded,diced tomatoes (one with good taste) yellow, orange or red and 4-5 basil leaves chopped. Salt and pepper to taste. simmer for about 15 to 20 min. and eat. Fast and simple.

Answer 7

Make some fresh pesto;

Chop up the basil
Add some olive oil (1/4 Cup)
Add some pine nuts (1/2 Cup)
add a little salt to taste (a pinch or so)
Puree all ingredients together in a blender and mix with pasta....Delicious!!

Answer 8

Oh My God! My favorite herb. Get a garden fresh ripe tomato, slice it sprinkle with S & P and garlic. Chop the basil and spread on tomatoes and drizzle with olive oil You can add parmesan cheese or Romano or Mozzarella YUM YUM!

Also My grandma's recipe.

Marinate a London Broil in your favorite marinate then while it is cooking take some stalks of basil dip it into the marinate and baste the meat with the basil leaves while cooking.
Marinate that grandma used was olive oil, a little vinegar, pinch oregano, S & P, garlic, worcester sauce.

I must stop, I'm drooling!!!

Answer 9

Tomato Salad.

Fresh Ripe tomatoes
Thinly sliced purple onion (Spanish or Vidallia)
Fresh basil sliced (chopped)

Toss with olive oil
salt
Pepper
Balsamic vinigar

enjoy.

Simple and very tasty

Answer 10

You can make pesto and serve it over pasta.

Easy Pesto
SUBMITTED BY: Rebecca Jane Thompson


"This is the easiest pesto recipe, using easy to find ingredients. It can be prepared in 2 minutes after you toast the almonds."

Original recipe yield:
6 servings

PREP TIME 2 Min
COOK TIME 10 Min
READY IN 12 Min
PHOTO BY: Allrecipes US METRIC

SERVINGS About scaling and conversions

INGREDIENTS
1/4 cup almonds
3 cloves garlic
1 1/2 cups fresh basil leaves
1/2 cup olive oil
1 pinch ground nutmeg
salt and pepper to taste
DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C). Place almonds on a cookie sheet, and bake for 10 minutes, or until lightly toasted.
In a food processor, combine toasted almonds, garlic, basil, olive oil, nutmeg, salt and pepper. Process until a coarse paste is formed.

Answer 11

I LOVE basil and tend to use it in everything but here is my favorite.

Plain fuccatia bread
red onion sliced and reduced in red wine.
feta cheese
basil

After softening the red onions and wine, allow to cool for easy handling. Spread the onion over the top of the fuccatia bread and sprinkle generously with finely chopped basil. Bake for 15 - 20 minutes at 250-300. You want to warm the bread through.
After removing from the oven sprinkle with crumbled feta and more fresh basil. Its makes a great appetizer.