Basil Oil

This is the taste of Summer – it goes on anything, and keeps for a week in the fridge. It looks like green sludge but tastes amazing.

3 large bunches basil

2 cloves garlic

Sea salt & black pepper to taste

200ml extra virgin olive oil

Since this is so simple, use the best ingredients you can find. Ideally the basil will be from the garden and the olive oil as green and grassy as the basil.

The boy is in charge of the basil plants on the patio. They want to flower, but nipping the flower heads off will force them back into leaf production.

Remove the basil leaves from the stalks and place in the food processor, along with the garlic, salt and pepper. Once it’s finely chopped, slowly pour the oil in, keeping the motor running. 

Let it rest a few minutes – the blending will have introduced a lot of air so it needs a while to settle before you taste it. Adjust the seasoning. The boy likes this on barbequed lamb chops, baby new potatoes,in a sausage sandwich, on peas or stirred into pasta.

My tip on growing Basil easily. Buy some supermarket “growing herbs”. Lift it out of the pot (it will be so compacted it will come out in one piece). Split it at the root into 3 or 4 pieces and plant each a few inches apart in the same pot. It will flop and look as if you’ve killed it, but give it some water and plenty of bright sunshine and it will perk up again. You’ll soon have a big, bushy basil plant that will keep going all summer. Pick the flowers off to keep it producing leaf.

Eat on the patio with Faure’s requiem playing at a decent volume.