There’s nothing like fresh basil. But sometimes it needs a little something fresh for contrast — a little zing to cut its musky bass notes. It needs … lime.
The winner of our recipe contest — and its prize of a year’s membership at the Denver Botanic Gardens – is Jeanne-Marie Oliver of Longmont, who knows this magic combination well. Her own garden is indoors and hydroponic — yes, the familiar AeroGarden; a couple of Denver Post staffers have them, and they keep these folks supplied with fresh herbs all winter. Jeanne-Marie grows mostly basil in it (“I grew the other herbs the first time through, but realized how much we really liked and used the basil, so I stuck with that,” she says). She’s able to harvest basil about every other week.
Her household of lucky diners includes her husband, two daughters, 16 and 20, and two pooches, a fierce Pomeranian and a watchful Border Collie mix. The humans in the clan are vegetarian, and I loved Jeanne-Marie’s recipe for pasta with add-ins because, rather than having to cater to everyone’s whims, which is always exciting with young eaters, you just set the seasonings on the table and let them build their own. She sets up small dishes of capers, grated parmesan, chopped kalamata olives, green onions and tomatoes. You could adapt the concept for carnivores with crunchy bits of pancetta or good ham, steamed or grilled asparagus chunks, caramalized cipollini onions, crumbled chevre, slivers of dry salame. Or with home-grown Thai basil and rice noodles (and add-in dishes of bean sprouts, shiitakes, cilantro, etc…) The only limit is your imagination.
Here’s Jeanne-Marie’s winning recipe, which is so simple you just about have to make it.
Pasta with Accessories
1 pound of pasta (campanelle is her favorite shape)
1/4 cup butter
1 cup chopped fresh basil
1 tablespoon lime (or lemon) juice
Cook pasta and drain. Set the table with your favorite pasta accessories. On medium heat, add butter to pasta pot; cook until melted. Turn the heat down to low; add the pasta, basil and lime juice. Toss until it’s all coated; then bring it to the table warm.
Want to grow your own basil from seed? Remember that basil does NOT like it cold. A kiss of frost is pretty much the kiss of death for it; temps below 65 will make transplants pouty. So if you’re starting it now, be prepared to baby it indoors for a good while. (When I plant mine, I put it in my south-facing brick planter for extra insurance against cold nights). It germinates quite happily from seed indoors, but put it in the warmest room for best results; it likes the starting medium around 70 degrees.
One more reason to plant basil: Sweet corn. My garden buddy Sheron has many divine culinary tricks in her vast repertoire, but one of her best is basil-lime butter on sweet corn. Buzz equal amounts of butter and olive oil in the food processor and add basil and lime juice and zest. We let other folks grow the corn, but having something homegrown on it makes it yummier.
