Organic Dried Basil 14g

Steenbergs Organic Basil is the perfect herb for pasta, tomato sauce and chicken and has a dark green colour. The flavour of organic basil is almost addictive and there is little that organic basil cannot improve.  The drying process does remove some of the top notes and creates a more allspice and clove taste, so for many recipes the fresh herb really is the best choice.

Known as tomato's best friend, add Steenbergs organic basil to salads, soups (try Steenbergs Asparagus And Pink Peppercorn Soup), fish and vegetables, especially aubergines, courgettes or squash; it is also wonderful on meat and poultry, or within patés.  Add organic basil at the end of cooking for the strongest flavour, sprinkled over a freshly made pizza or over parsnips roasted slowly.  For more inspiration and recipes created using basil, try BBC or Delia Online.

The most popular variety of basil for cooking is the succulent, large leaved variety, Ocimum basilicum which hails from Genoa in Northern Italy.  These sweet basil plants are annual herbs that thrive in the summer heat, then die off with the first sign of winter - perhaps this is why basil seems to evoke warm summer days and works best with food that is summery in nature, especially tomatoes.  Sweet basil plants grow to about 50cm high (20 inches).  Their stems are tough and square, while their leaves are dark-green and oval-shaped, ranging in size from 30mm (1 inch) to 100mm (4 inches)in length.  While the aroma of basil leaves is really strong and refreshing, with hints of clove and anise, the taste is much less pervasive than that and can be used in large quantities.