Purple Ball Basil is a strikingly beautiful, diminutive plant that is flourishing in my hydroponic garden. The leaves are not just lovely to look at, they pack more basil flavor than you might expect from such a small package.
These festive little leaves have been a happy addition to our salads and pizzas. It got me wondering how they would hold up when cooked. Unfortunately, my first ideas resulted in flavorful but blackened leaves. But then I came across a video showing how to incorporate edible flower petals into laminated pasta. Ding! That should work, right? The tiny purple leaves are much like flower petals.
This pasta was a labor of inspired love. First I made and rolled two flat sheets of pasta. Then I spread purple basil leaves on the bottom layer and gently placed a second layer of pasta on top. I learned that a rolling pin was the best way to laminate the two layers. After the laminated sheets were complete, I proceeded to make ravioli as per usual. I laid down a sheet of pasta dough and added generous spoonfuls of a cheese mixture Jack had created. After covering this first sheet with a second sheet of laminated dough, I used a fluted pastry wheel to cut out individual ravioli. Because the finished ravioli has a total of four thin layers of pasta, it does take a little longer to cook – five minutes instead of three. Since this ravioli is so pleasing to look at and has a unique flavor I wanted to keep the finish simple. We served it with a light dressing of sautéed garlic, olive oil, sun-dried tomatoes and sea salt. I finished the dish with fresh purple ball basil and a bit of fresh thyme. We felt like we were eating art!
What would you do with these beautiful, tasty leaves?
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CutterLight 
They look Delicious!! Does the taste match their looks?
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Hi John. Yes indeed, these were first rate. Good to hear from you! JD
I follow you when you pop up. Always enjoy the content. Haven’t been 🎣in a while due to excess fluid on my brain, NPH. Getting the drainage straight so I can return to something close to normal. Still getting around just a little slower. Jann is doing pretty well. Being our Master Gardener she sets the pace in our expanding garden. Very productive year, seems like we supply the neighbors and keep the freezer full for the off season.
Did you hear that our El Dorado Chapter is returning to Sac-Sierra. We have an aging membership and running out of leadership. Placerville is a senior community. I’m turning 80 in April. Time flies.
John
You’re right about that, John. Time flies. I turned 67 last month. Can hardly believe it. Hope your health returns to something… as you say, closer to normal. After many years (decades) of traveling around, we couldn’t be happier settling in here in Cordova. We’ve got one entire room dedicated to hydroponic gardening which provides a continuous flow of cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, other this and that and more lettuce than we can keep up with. It’s great, especially up here where lettuce and other vegetables are expensive and often arrive in “iffy” condition. Plus outdoors landscaping/gardening provides lots of ongoing projects. And three cats! We don’t do nearly as much fishing as we once did… but still manage to keep our freezers stocked with salmon, rockfish, halibut and other fillets. Mostly we enjoy hiking into the small upland lakes around here and trying to coax cutthroats not much longer than my hand to come up and grab a fly. Reminds me of the fishing I did as a kid back in Western Pennsylvania chasing Brookies. Take care, hi to Jann, and really good to hear from you. Jack
Beautiful!!! You have a lot of patience!!!
You WERE eating art! Another triumph of creative cuisine. I have had borage, with its brilliant blue star-shaped blossoms, but have been content to simply use them as salad toppers.
Thanks for the note, Cate. You prompted us to look up borage… What a beautiful flower! Flowers really make a salad feel like summer, don’t they?