Beautiful bountiful basil, that’s what’s blooming at the moment. I hardly need Pam Morrow to tell me this though: for someone as disastrous a herb-grower as I am, I’ve recently witnessed a profusion of basil on our sunny balcony and I’m not even sure where it came from!
Pam of Iona Herbs is herself a master herb-grower, evidence being her stall of potted seedlings, all certified organic, all so vigorously greenly healthy. She tells me that not only is it basil’s time to shine but also that of thyme, oregano, sage, marjoram – herbs calling out for tomatoes – and that this is when you should be planting them. I want to know the difference between marjoram and oregano as I’m aware they’re similar. According to Waverley Root, ‘the two have been thoroughly confused since the beginning of their histories’ – but in fact oregano ‘smells and tastes stronger than the delicate sweet marjoram.’ Pam knows this, of course, and shows me the two, the oregano with darker fatter leaves ‘Some companies mix it up,’ she tells me, ‘they sell marjoram as oregano.’
But back to that basil. Related to mint, its pungency means that at the slightest touch, its fragrance is released. Most excesses of basil find their way into pesto, that Genovese paste commonly stirred through pasta, but I’ve long loved using it in an utterly simple Claudia Roden recipe for fish. Ideally the fish used should be a firm meaty one like tuna or swordfish, which you arrange in an oiled baking dish and strew with pitted black olives, capers, chopped tomatoes and an entire bunch of chopped basil. Scatter over seasoning, dried breadcrumbs and a slick of olive oil then bake in your hottest oven until done, by which stage the basil has crisped up gorgeously.
Iona Herbs is at Mullumbimby every Friday from 7 – 11am
