My Garden

The observant reader may have noticed that the last three entries on this blog contained copious amounts of basil. Have I won some form of basil lottery that provided me with such bounty? In a way, yes. I have recreated my garden, this time in rooftop form.

This displays half of the garden: my chives, chili plants and parsley. The chili plants are, so far, the most robust. Yet, they have not produced even the smallest chili. I was ready to give up on them, until a few days ago when I spied a flower opening up. I've only used the chives and parsley as garnish. And I only use garnish when entertaining, which I have only done once so far in my new apartment. Still, even that means that they are pulling their weight more than the chilies so far, though hopefully that will change.

As mentioned, the basil is separately potted. One of the basil plants has done quite well; the other species shriveled and died. I blame society. Still, the basil has been the workhorse of the plants, in that it provides actual value add for stuff I'm cooking.

The garden is rounded out by some houseplants which have the rather evocative name of Mother-in-Law's Tongue or Snake Plant. They stand tall and apparently remove formaldehyde from the air. We'll see how they all work together to build a better tomorrow.

Salsa Cruda Pasta

Perhaps my favourite line from Mark Bittman's book was from his recipe for linguine with raw tomato sauce (and basil). You could use good-quality canned tomatoes, he said, "it won't be the same, but it won't be bad (do not, however, use dried basil, here or anywhere else). And since I have some basil plants and my parents gave me a thing of cherry tomatoes from the market, I knew I should use his recipe as a base for a meal.

Pasta With Raw Tomatoes

1/2 cup chopped tomatoes

1/2 tbsp olive oil

1 clove garlic, minced

2 tbsp basil leaves, tightly packed

salt

pepper

1 cup pasta

2.25 cups water
Cook the pasta – I used my absorption style method. Meanwhile, combine the tomatoes, basil, oil, salt and pepper and mash with a fork. With a few minutes to go on the pasta toss in the garlic. When the pasta is done, top with the sauce and serve.

Serves 1.

I should probably give a note on the water/pasta ratio. Because I was using fusilli instead of a more tightly packed together pasta my cup overfloweth, as they say. As is I wont, I measure out pasta by filling a plate with the dried stuff. The ratio does not scale up, 2 cups of pasta for 4.5 cups of water would leave excess water (though again, that's not necessarily a problem).