Concerning basil

In the perfect world my kitchen would always be clean, without any dirty dishes laying about or big forks in the little forks section of the cutlery tray. The sink would gleam, the inside of the microwave would not be something I hid from people watching me cook, ditto for the freezer. And...I would grow herbs. This is something I have wanted to do for a very long time and possibly the desire stems from watching French Food At Home on tv (all those lovely pots in her kitchen) or maybe from this wonderful book my mother owned when I was little. It had nothing but pictures of herb gardens from around the world and I remember the little rosemary mazes, the basil grown against crumbling brick walls, names like Lemon Verbena and Thyme that just make you want to close your eyes and open them on a Mexican desert oasis.

But I am not a herb snob, I'll have you know. I hope I'm not any sort of snob but I know I can say with assurance that I'm not a herb snob. I was out shopping the other day and I lingered a bit too long in the produce aisle and discovered that a little tube of basil puree had found itself into my cart. I wrestled with my conscience about purchasing a tube of crushed leaves for the exhorbitant price of $3.99 but the basil won out. It murmured to me how versatile it was, how nicely it would go with the tomatoes I had just purchased, how far it would stretch...much farther than it looked at first glance. This would be a tube of basil for the ages, it assured me! It would last months! (Forget for a moment whether you would be up for eating two month old basil, please, we're imagining here.) Once I bought it I squeezed a little into the chicken paprikash from the other night. And I did eat a bit with a tomato. And I might possibly have squeezed some on a spoon and eaten that, too, but the point is I used the basil.

Two things I did with the basil have really stuck, though. Apart from the squeezed basil on a spoon, which I recommend in its own right. The first was a great rub of basil and minced garlic with oil that I rubbed on a roast of beef last night before browning the beef in a pan and transferring it to an oven to roast. It brought a whole different taste to the meat and I thought it was even better on the sliced cold meat in sandwiches the next day. The second thing I did with the basil was make a truly amazing salsa with it. I took six or so Tbsp of crushed pineapple from a can and fried it in some butter till it started to carmelize in the pan. The I put it in a bowl with a chopped tomato (just the flesh - I took out the pulp) some salt and pepper and a good dollop of this basil. Oh, it was good. The crispness of the green with the sweet pineapple was lovely but add a bit of tomato and boy, I could just eat it with a spoon. Which I did. The whole bowl. So there, basil tube.