Basil Sauce

Fast, simple, savory, and original! Basil sauce is a recipe that lets you preserve the taste and aroma of this wonderful herb, which keeps only briefly after picking and wilts very fast. The sauce nicely complements and enhances the flavor of all sorts of dishes, varies your menu, and dresses up the table.

Snezhana

Recipe author

Composition / ingredients

Servings:

Basil

150

Garlic

Olive oil

Lemon juice

Ground black pepper

Salt

Translation table of volumetric measures

Nutrients and energy value of the composition of the recipe

By weight of the composition:

Proteins 15 % 3 g

Fats 70 % 14 g

Carbohydrates 15 % 3 g

152 kcal

GI: 100 / 0 / 0

Cooking method

Cooking time: 20 min

Step 1:

How do you make basil sauce? Gather the ingredients. Use any basil for this sauce - green or purple. Extra-virgin olive oil is best, but if you don't have it, you can use whatever you have. I sometimes use the most ordinary refined vegetable oil.
Step 2:

Wash the basil well and dry it with paper towels. Pull the leaves off the stems - basil stems are coarse and hard to blend. You can use them when making broth or stewing meat. Or finely chop the stems with a knife and dry them, then add the dried bits to any dish for aroma.
Step 3:

Peel the garlic cloves and put them in a blender with the basil leaves. Grind them into a mushy paste. For grinding, you can use a countertop blender, a chopper attachment for a mixer, or an immersion blender. If you have no equipment at all on hand, try making the sauce the old-fashioned way - in a mortar. It won't be easy, but that's exactly how Italian cooks made the sauce before blenders came along.
Step 4:

Add olive oil, lemon juice, salt, and ground black pepper to taste. Blend again until smooth. Spoon the sauce into small clean jars and store it in the fridge.
Step 5:

You can serve this sauce with meat or fish dishes, pasta, or salads, or use it as a spread on toast. Any dish with this sauce added will reveal its flavor in a new way. Enjoy!

Adjust the consistency of the sauce with the amount of oil and lemon juice: for a thicker sauce, add less; for a thinner one, add more. Be sure to taste the sauce and add salt and pepper to taste.
Since everyone's tolerance for salt, sweetness, bitterness, heat, acidity, and spice is different, always add spices and seasonings to your own taste! If you're using a seasoning for the first time, keep in mind that some are especially easy to overdo (chili pepper, for example).