BUGGER-OFF BASIL
I bought a fascinating collection titled “In the Devil’s Garden - A Sinful History of Forbidden Food’ by Stewart Lee Allen on a book sale recently - It is divided in sections around the Seven Deadly Sins, “Lust, Pride, Gluttonry, yada-yada-yada, rock ‘n roll etc.
It contains this delightful history about the origin of the Basil plant which no self-respecting Michelin star chef can do without (ask me I know)
Basil was brought to Europe by Alexander the Great from near India around the fourth century B.C. The plant came with a little tale about a girl named Vrinda. It’s a complicated story full of jealous gods, demons and angelic seductions. In the end our heroine, Vrinda, discovers that her husband has been killed. She is so distressed that she throws herself on her husband’s funeral pyre and is burned alive. The Hindu gods turned her charred hair into a sweet-smelling plant named tulsi, or basil, which they ordered their priest to revere. Some Indian courts still make people take the oath by holding their hand over a basil bush and many devout Hindus begin their day praying around the household tulsi plant. In the evening they leave a sacred butter lamp burning by its side.
The basil bush Alexander brought to Europe went through a variety of genetic changes and so did the story of Vrinda. First the gods were lost (I wonder if they’re as pissed off as the forgotten deities in Neil Gaiman’s excellent “American Gods”?) Then Vrinda’s horrible fiery suicide was deleted. Over time Vrinda became a girl named Lisabetta who, unable to bear parting with the body of her dead lover, cuts of his head with a chainsaw she borrowed of the guy responsible for the Texas Chainsaw Massacre (just joking). She then buries the head in a pot beneath a basil bush. Lisabetta waters it faithfully with her tears until she dies of a broken heart (or succumbs from the stench of the rotting maggot infested head - sorry my warped alter-ego is gaining control). The basil bush, thanks to the special fertilizer (maggot infested brains?) grows so large that people makes pilgrimages to visit it.
It’s the same basic story line - girl loves boy, boy gets killed, girl goes crazy, plant makes the headlines only transformed to European values. While the Hindus focused on love and the devotion, the Euro-Barbarians were more interested in madness and decapitation. This more morbid flavour is in tune with the Mediterranean view of true love as a “grave madness, a powerful force that knocked people off balance and caused them to do dangerous and terrible things,” according to historian Margaret Visser (I dunno who she is). In his poem “Isabella” Keats (he’s dead) writes that the dead lover’s rotting head gave the plant a particularly pleasant fragrance.
Whence thick, and green, and beautiful it grew
So that it smelt more balmy than its peers
Of basil-tufts in Florence: for it drew (nourishment)…
From the fast moldering head there shut from view
The connection between basil and insanity (Not Basil Fawlty, ask Sybil & Manuel, they knew Basil was as mad as a March hare) led the Europeans to rename tulsi as basilicum, a reference to the mythical scorpion, the basilisk, which they claimed grew in the brain of those who smelled the plant. Hence the curious Italian custom of ‘going mad” and screaming obscenities when plucking the plants leaves.
Here’s one of my favourite recipes using Basil as an ingredient:
ALIO OLIO EL GRECO
· Pre-Cook some Penne Rigate
· Heat about 100ml good quality olive oil in a pan
· Chuck in some fresh garlic and fresh chili
· Dice a couple of fingers of Haloumi cheese and fry in the oil
· When nearly done add some halved cherry tomatoes and a good handful of fucking basil leaves
· Add the cooked pasta.
· Add some freshly squeezed lemon juice and flat leaf Italian Parsley
· Toss to combine & pour into a dish
· Top with shaved Grana Padana Parmesan and freshly ground black pepper to taste
· Pour a good lug of the best Extra Virgin Olive oil and there you go
You can also add a liter of chocolate ice-cream at some stage for a truly magnificent dish but only if the mythical basilisk grew in your brain whilst accidentally smelling the basil when you picked the leaves.
Mangia merde e morte basilico