Basil is ambidextrous
Gardeners in our area who planted basil (rhymes with Hazel) early in the spring are probably busy picking it because it grows fast. For some this means making pesto (rhymes with Ernesto) which can be frozen if you didn’t eat all of it yet, but first you have to make it.
The basic recipes for basil call for basil leaves, garlic, pine nuts, extra-virgin olive oil and Parmesan cheese (rhymes with Louise). You can change it up to suit yourself, and the appropriate amounts of these things is a personal choice. Pesto is here to reflect you.
You can respectfully combine your ingredients in a blender, push the button, and a short chaos later you have tasty pesto. Or, cut everything tiny and mash it all together with a mortar in a pestle which would link you with your Stone Age progenitors.
So, there’s your pesto. Now what?
The Food Network claimed, “Pesto might be the perfect flavor enhancer.” I’m probably not the only one who has plenty to learn about enhancing flavors, so pesto comes in handy. We are now in the fresh pesto season. You know how some people are always baking something? Those folks could put pesto in the recipe for a loaf of bread with an herbal undertone. Impressive! Or if you already have bread and are making bruschetta for brunch for three friends before pickleball, slather a glop of pesto on there to enhance the other flavors… according to the Food Network.
Serving brie (rhymes with Lee) cheese brands you as cosmopolitan, but smear some pesto on a slice, yum yum, and no one this side of Uranus is more cosmopolitan. Pesto has an aura, so climb on in there, and that is because of basil (rhymes with Hazel).
But besides rubbing pesto all over your salmon (doesn’t that sound exciting), basil has more to offer. It is a dang bona fide, historically respected medicinal, so pay attention. This might cure your warts.
There are more than 150 species of basil around the world. Did you know basil repels flies? Also, if your new friend Wally (rhymes with Molly) ate his twenty-twelfth oyster (rhymes with Royster) and a midsection tumult is nigh, ginger root and chamomile are helpful, but Wally could also try a tiny bit of mild basil tea because it has historically been relied upon to ease digestive and stomach issues. Really. Ask Diogenes. Wally should also pay better attention to what he ingests.
So, from the wilds of southern Asia to the Bunsen burners of Everywhere Tech, the medicine cabinet called basil has a story to tell.
Basil contains essential oils (for example, eugenol) which counteract the effects of cholesterol and triglycerides plus it contributes magnesium which helps blood vessels be less rigid and thereby allows blood to flow more easily. This means basil in your spaghetti sauce might kooch-i-koo your ticker in several important ways.
But there’s more! What if you innocently upset the normal daily life of a bee on a cosmos near a basil, and the bee overacts because it’s been that kind of a day and it stings you. The cosmos continues, the bee scurries away, so that leaves your sting and the basil. Just so happens, according to folk legend and medical labs everywhere, rubbing a basil leave on a bee sting might alleviate the irritation, and you and bee can reconnect at the rudbeckia thicket and talk about old times, which would be three days ago.
What components in basil can do for your bee sting also applies to other inflammations which affect heart activity, arthritis and bowel disorders. Basil can do that.
Nature offers more than 150 species of basil for a reason. I’m growing five varieties this year, and I plan to dehydrate a mixture with the intent of enhancing my flavor (rhymes with favor).