Lush Italian Herb Gardens
Italian cooking would be incomplete without basil. No-one can resist fresh pesto sauce which contains basil as a key ingredient. Basil works great with tomato sauce and always enhances any pasta dish. Soups, marinades and sauces all work well with basil.
The most common variety of basil is The Sweet Italian Large Leaf. Genovese Basil is used in authentic pesto. To grow your own basil, plant the seeds in a sunny location or start them indoors in small pots and transfer them directly into your garden. Trim the flower buds below the node to keep the plant from growing up.The leaves can be harvested just before the plant flowers. You can easily store them for upto a week by keeping the stalks immersed in a cup of water. For long-term storage, you can just hang them to dry in a cool, dry place.
Meatballs and Italian sausages always contain fennel seeds. They’re also used for meat and fish to give it that lovely distinctive flavor. Toasting the seeds lightly before using them enhances the flavor of fennel seeds.Fennel originally belongs to Italy and can be found growing naturally throughout the country. Fennel seeds replant themselves quickly when they fall. Due to this reason they should be grown in a separate area in your garden to prevent them from taking over other plants’ growing space. Fennel also requires a good amount of sunlight and well-drained soil. Fennel seeds can be harvested when the flowers turn brown and can be stored in paper bags.
Garlic is an essential Italian herb. They can be directly planted and they grow easily without much attention. Autumn is a good time to plant garlic.Garlic should be harvested when the tops turn brown and fall. The bulbs can be dried in the sun and stored in a bag. Freezing garlic cloves can enable them to be stored for a longer time.
Oregano is another commonly used Italian herb. It complements the flavor of basil and goes well with tomato-based dishes, meat, fish and salads. It’s also great for use with beans and eggplant. Plant oregano stem cuttings or root divisions for best results. Plant them in a sunny part of your garden. Sunlight has a direct impact on the flavor of the herbs. Harvest them before the flowers bloom and keep trimming the plant to maintain its health. Fresh oregano can be stored in water like basil or can be dried for long-term keeping.
Parsley is one of the most flavorful Italian herbs. The flat-leafed variety is more tasty than other types and is great for use in soup stock and vegetarian dishes. You can also use them with grilled meat or fish.Parsley seeds should be planted in direct sunlight or in light shade. It’s a good idea to grow two crops, one year apart, to get the best parsley because the first years plants are always the tastiest. The second years crop can be used for harvesting the seeds. Parsley is ideally harvested when the plant reaches about six inches in height. They can be chopped and dried or frozen for storage or they may be used fresh.
