A.k.a. insalata Caprese – what kind of basil do you use, sweet or Italian?
According to my step mother, who I alway ask about stuff like this, you usually only see regular basil in this salad. The fragrance is a key component to what makes that salad so wonderful. Given that, she said that wouldn’t stop her from using purple basil once in a while to change it up.
Personally, I go with Italian basil. A little purple basil mixed in adds a nice dash of color, but I wouldn’t use it alone.
(For the sake of distinguishing varieties, I’m assuming that you’re referring to Thai basil as “sweet basil”. Some people refer to the common Italian/Mediterranean basil as “sweet basil”, but that wouldn’t make sense in this context.)
I wasn’t sure, that’s why I asked – I’m not sure what the person has in mind for what with these names. Which would you use for pesto?
In that case, whoever was talking about it was probably using “sweet” and “Italian” pretty much interchangeably. “Sweet basil” is a rather vague reference–many varieties of basil are sometimes referred to as “sweet”, even if they’re not sweet at all. Thai basil is actually somewhat sweeter in flavor, but I don’t think I’ve actually seen it called “sweet basil”.
I would use Italian basil for pesto. In fact, I would use it for most dishes that aren’t of Asian or Indian origin, unless I wanted a specific flavor, like the citrus taste of lemon basil.
Yeah, I’m going back to the author on this, because it’s not making sense to me. Since I’m neither a cook nor an herbalist, though, I wasn’t sure if this really didn’t make sense or whether it just didn’t make sense to me. Apparently the former.
Thanks!
(Whichever you use, don’t forget the olive oil.)
I like to use some balsamic reduction on my caprese salads as well as a splash of EVOO.