Big Ass Basil

[tony b]

I've grown many varieties of basil plants over the years, including "lettuce leaf" basil, but this plant has the biggest leaves I've ever seen.

I got the plant from Territorial Seeds and it's called Mammoth - no sh!t!

My favorite thing to do with basil this big (stole this one from a good Italian place here in town) - wrap a nice log of cheese (1/4" square and 2" long - any good melting cheese - Jack, Mozzarella, Swiss, White Cheddar, etc.) inside the basil leaf. Then, wrap the whole thing inside a nice thin slice of salumi (prosciutto, salami, or soprassetta.) You can either put it under the broiler or on the grill (direct heat) for a couple of minutes on each side, until the cheese melts and the salumi starts to crisp up. I did 4 of these as my app while cooking dinner tonight. I used a chile pepper white cheddar cheese and hard salami, with a nice glass of Petite Syrah. Wonderful!

 

If you don't have big ass basil, you can do the same thing with a couple of regular sized basil leaves.

[CeramicChef]

@tony b - WHOA!  That's some big basilico!  And you're right on point about using it for a wrapper for finger foods.  

[Syzygies]

We grow Genovese basil from seed for pesto, first batch tomorrow with guests. This is further than I usually let it go, perhaps 5" high each. One of two barrels. An automatic irrigation system is a must (we use Hydrawise) as these seeds need watering multiple times per day.

My first trip to Italy, half a lifetime ago, friends in Genova 'educated' me by showing me the basil sold at market. Rather small bunches. They characterized United States basil as lawn clippings, the primary reason that United States pesto was ghastly, inedible. They were very sweet about this, but this was a fervently held belief. English to english translation: We were morons to grow our basil so big, as if we preferred eating six year old sheep.

On the other hand, I specifically seek out large weedy basil as a bed on which to cook salmon, which will be our second course tomorrow: Brine the best wild salmon you can find, 1/2 cup salt per gallon, less sugar, four hours. Place on a bed of weed basil in a Spanish cazuela, smoke gently using apple wood till melting. To die for.

[tinyfish]

Is it the  same basil taste in those large leaves?

[Syzygies]

6 hours ago, tinyfish said:

Is it the  same basil taste in those large leaves?

The taste evolves as the plant matures, and different varieties have different profiles. Genovese basil has a delicate profile; other varieties grown further south in Italy and Sicily have sharper flavors, more suitable for other applications such as tomato sauces. Well before any variety goes to seed, the taste becomes "weedier".

We experience similar patterns with our mint bed. Of all the mint we bought, we only liked the taste of one. Luckily it is perennial and nearly impossible to eradicate. We regularly cut back half, hard, and the new leaves are what we like for cooking.

The idea of having the same mint Ernest Hemingway tasted in his mojitos is hopeless; mint changes if you move it fifty feet, let alone across a body of water. Similarly, we can't reproduce the conditions of basil as used in Genova for pesto. Starting with the right variety, and picking young, helps. Still, no two sources of "Genovese basil" taste the same, and each crop is a record of the weather that month.

This is an empirical question. Let any basil plant go to seed, and keep tasting the leaves over the entire lifespan of the plant. Your idea of the peak flavor window may not agree with any Italian view, but there will be a window.

[tony b]

The BA basil is not as strong a flavor as other varieties that I'm growing.