Basil

Growing wild in prehistoric Africa, cultivated for more than 5,000 years in Asia, and used in ancient Greece, basil has only been readily available in North America since the 1970s. Even then, popular North American recipes often called simply for “basil” assuming that what was at hand was dried. Now there is almost universal agreement that to attain the full breadth of basil’s flavor, it should be used fresh. Note, however, that when cooking with fresh basil it is generally best to add it toward the end of the cooking process because of the fragile nature of the glands that contains the herb’s aromatic and flavorful essential oils.