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Best Pesto Basil?


In the past, I’ve been pretty casual about buying basil plants for my garden. Basil is basil, right? You go to the nursery, buy some basil (Ocimum basilicum) and plant it. Well, if you’re like me and you’re mainly growing it to make your own pesto, you might be better off planting Italian varieties like ‘Genovese’, ‘Italian Pesto’, and ‘Profuma di Genova’ over plain old basil. The Italian cultivars are considered superior because of their larger leaf size, mild taste and complex fragrance.

The Cooks Garden calls ‘Sweet Genovese’ “Absolutely the best for cooking and for pesto.”

Renee’s Garden calls “Profuma di Genova” the “European greengrocers’ choice” for its “bright basil flavor without minty/clove overtones, compact shape and excellent disease resistance.”

So, pesto lovers, look for key words like “Genovese”, “Genova”, and “Italian” when shopping for basil seeds or plants. I will… from now on.

For a nice basil primer, see Fine Gardening’s Basil Basics, by Susan Belsinger, coauthor of Basil: An Herb Lover’s Guide.

What would all this basil talk be without a recipe?

While not a pesto recipe, it does use fresh torn basil leaves. Enjoy this easy-to-make, delicious dish. I … (loosens belt)… just did.

Rachael Ray’s “You Won’t Be Single for Long” Vodka Cream Pasta

INGREDIENTS
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, once around the pan in a slow stream
1 tablespoon butter
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 shallots, minced
1 cup vodka
1 cup chicken stock
1 can crushed tomatoes (32 ounces)
Coarse salt and pepper
16 ounces pasta, such as penne rigate
1/2 cup heavy cream
20 leaves fresh basil, shredded or torn
Serve with:
Crusty bread, for passing

Heat a large skillet over moderate heat. Add oil, butter, garlic and shallots. Gently sauté shallots for 3 to 5 minutes to develop their sweetness. Add vodka to the pan (3 turns around the pan in a steady stream will equal about 1 cup). Reduce vodka by half, this will take 2 or 3 minutes. Add chicken stock, tomatoes. Bring sauce to a bubble and reduce heat to simmer. Season with salt and pepper.

While sauce simmers, cook pasta in salted boiling water until cooked to al dente (with a bite to it). While pasta cooks, prepare your salad or other side dishes.

Stir cream into sauce. When sauce returns to a bubble, remove it from heat. Drain pasta. Toss hot pasta with sauce and basil leaves. Pass pasta with crusty bread.

(Tuesday, March 28 update: I found Genovese basil plants at Capital Nursery on Sunrise and Genovese and “Italian basil” plants at Windmill Nursery in Carmichael. Also picked up some seeds of Genovese. The plants are gonna hang out in the greenhouse until warmer weather. Ah… warmer weather.)

Mountain Valley Growers has a nice pesto recipe.

Aphids



(Dad aphid) “Honey, what do you think the kids would like for dinner?”

(Mom aphid) “How about Angela’s pink tulips?”

(Kid aphids) “Yay, yay, yay, yay!”

2006 S.F. Flower & Garden Show

Here are a few photos of scenery, exhibits and items I particularly enjoyed. If you go today or tomorrow, be sure to attend some of the excellent seminars and come prepared to lug home a bunch of plants and bulbs and garden tools and gismos and gadgets. A lot of smart folks bring those collapsible shopping carts on wheels.

Plants I bought:

  • Epiphyllum ‘Tele’ from Epiphyllum World. Epis are my new addiction.
  • 2 tree peonies from The Lily Pad
  • Heuchera ‘Chocolate Ruffles’ from Digging Dog Nursery
  • Dierama pulcherrimum from Digging Dog
  • Persicaria virginiana ‘Lance Corporal’ from Digging Dog… nope… just discovered the plant was mislabeled. If or when I figure out what I bought, I’ll report back.


It was a beautiful sunny day in the city. Keep both hands on the wheel when photographing while driving.


Striking wall-mounted pots planted with the unfortunately named Senecio rowleyanus, a.k.a. String of Pearls


“The Junkman’s Paradisio”
This is my kind of garden… a rough and tumble mix of herbs, recycled art, pots, painted raised beds, herbs, edibles and a compost bin.


“Pod”


Arizona State University’s “Jelly, Bean and Me”. This display will freak your freak. What’re college kids smokin’ these days?


This is your asparagus on steroids.


“Livin’ Cheap in Baja”



“A Garden Railroad”


Chelsea Antiques has these great giant metal roosters. I want one for my front yard. Tee hee.


The Original Living Wreath by Margee
www.livingwreath.com

These are so cool!


View from inside the “women’s” restroom… Are the hydrangeas there to prevent us from mistaking a urinal for a toilet? We chicas are smarter than that. If they’re there purely for a splash of color, well, then BRAVO!


Heading home around 4pm. Traffic wasn’t too bad. It only took about thirty minutes to get over the Bay Bridge. Last year I left the Cow Palace a little later and it took me over an hour to get over the bridge… in the rain, bumper to bumper.


I always like to swing by 4th Street in Berkeley on the way home to hit a few stores and grab a bite to eat before heading back to Sacramento. The AeroGarden pictured above was at Sur La Table. Neato, huh?

This year, we got some lovely takeout from The Pasta Shop and ate it in the car. I love eating in parked cars. A lowfat mocha (no whip) from Peet’s a couple doors down gave me enough caffeine to counteract the pasta and allowed me to remain alert for the drive home. New sights, new plants, good food, good coffee, good company… what a fun day!

Lazy Rooting

One of my favorite GardenWeb threads is “I’m Lazy– What can you root in plain old water???”. Did you know that pricey bunch of Italian basil rotting in your fridge roots easily in water? No? Well, plunk some of those stems in water and shout, “Pesto!”

Here’s what else lazy rooters are rooting in plain old agua:

euonymus
rosemary
geranium
impatiens
willow
coleus
mint
mock orange
african violets
passion vine
tomato suckers
oleander
hydrangea
forsythia
snowball bush
gardenia
weigela
ficus
bay laurel
persicaria
lamium
oregano
sweet potato vine
pineapple tops
christmas cactus
hardy mums
philodendron
pothos
flowering quince
petunia
snapdragon
salvia
sedum
lemon grass
begonia
butterfly bush
mandevilla
fuchsia
abutilon
tropical hibiscus
wandering jew
spider plant
angel’s trumpet
diascia
pineapple
aucuba

There’s some discussion about “water roots” making it in soil, and one suggestion was to transplant when the roots are “an inch to and inch and a quarter long” and haven’t yet differentiated into water roots and can still become soil roots. Bears experimentation, I’d say! If I have a chance, I’ll check my plant propagation books and see what they say. I’ve had great luck rooting Persian Shield in water and growing it in the garden and I paid absolutely no attention to root length. Still, I’d like to explore further.

What I like to do on a rainy day


My tomato seeds arrived yesterday from Tomato Growers Supply. Gotta get those babies planted! Working in the greenhouse on a rainy day is pretty fun except for the fact that water drip drops through the roof while I’m working. Still, the little space heater keeps things toasty and my radio keeps my ears happy.