Hydroponic Basil

A couple weeks ago I couldn't resist some fresh basil! As you know spring and those warmer temperatures have most definitely been flirting with us. Once warm weather hits I am all about cooking with fresh vegetables and herbs.

Harris Teeter sells two types of fresh basil (that I could see): one is packaged basil leaves and the second is a hydroponic basil plant. Hydroponic gardening is basically gardening without soil utilizing water and nutrients. You can check out the Wikipedia article. I purchased the hydroponic basil because it not only looked way fresher than the packaged but if I kept it in fresh water then it would last a couple of days or more on the the kitchen counter!

The purchase of this hydroponic basil turned into a "margherita" weekend! A margherita pizza is typically adorned with mozzarella cheese, tomatoes, and basil! We had three margherita inspired meals with the hydroponic basil. Here they are:

Margherita Risotto
   This recipe will be up on the blog soon. We've been enjoying risotto (we maybe make it once every 1-2 months) and felt it was time to venture out from our standard recipe. This was a winner!

Deep Dish Pizza topped with fresh basil
   Patrick follows this recipe that we've blogged before. And this time we added the basil before serving!

Quiche with Sundried Tomatoes and Basil
   There was a frozen pie shell in the freezer and a guest in the house so we made a quiche! We used an Italian cheese blend and sundried tomatoes for the base then added the fresh torn basil leaves and the quiche egg mixture we've used before on top.

We're ready for own fresh basil! I imagine some will be going into a planter soon. Our box of mixed green lettuces is doing well and sprouting lots of bright green leaves.

In case there was any confusion no margaritas were consumed during the weekend.

1 comment:

  1. I was lucky enough to be with Whitney and Patrick when they cooked these 3 dishes. All were wonderful. I am going to make the deep dish pizza for Jimmy.

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