basil
Cultural layer
Phylogeny and evolution of basils and allies (Ocimeae, Labiatae) based on three plastid DNA regions (Paton et al., 2004)
Ocimum basilicum L. (Plants of the World Online, Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, accessed 2026-10-11)
The Oxford Companion to Food (Alan Davidson, 1999)
Basilico Genovese, application for registration as a protected designation of origin (Official Journal of the European Union C 259, 21 October 2004, pp. 3 to 6)
La Cuciniera Genovese, eighth edition (G. B. and Giovanni Ratto, 1893)
La cuciniera genovese, G. B. Ratto, editions held in Italian libraries (OPAC SBN, Istituto Centrale per il Catalogo Unico, accessed 2026-10-11)
Ayurveda's immunity boosting measures for self care during COVID 19 crisis (Ministry of AYUSH, Press Information Bureau, Government of India, 31 March 2020)
Simple Thai Food (Leela Punyaratabandhu, 2014)
Route
PendingThe routes are written. They are not yet mapped.
This entry's cultural layer already names where it came from and how it moved. What it does not yet carry is that movement as structure: ordered waypoints with real coordinates, and a mechanism on each leg. Until it does, the layer stays an empty slot rather than a drawn line, because a map built from prose would be a guess with a projection under it.
1 of 409 entries carries a mapped route · nutmeg is the prototype
- Waypoints
Ordered places, each with its kind
- Coordinates
Real positions, with the gazetteer they came from
- Segments
From, to, and the mechanism that moved it
- Confidence
Documented, attributed or contested
- Summary
What the route argues, in a sentence
Connections
12 bonds · 10 sourcedArtusi's salsa di pomodoro is built on a battuto with basil in it, and his plain sugo takes a few leaves.
Read in Artusi's La scienza in cucina, recipe 125, salsa di pomodoro, where basil goes into the battuto with onion, garlic, celery and parsley before the tomatoes, and recipe 6, sugo di pomodoro, which allows a few leaves. His evidence alone would place the pair lower; the forms that make it defining, caprese and the Neapolitan sauces, lie outside the regions he wrote from inside, so the score is not lowered on his account. Also confirmed in The Flavour Thesaurus at Basil & Tomato. The Flavor Bible, also cited, sets it in bold in the entry for basil.
Set in bold capitals in The Flavor Bible: very highly recommended by a large number of the chefs it surveyed.
Read from the entry for basil in the 2008 edition.
Set in bold capitals in The Flavor Bible: very highly recommended by a large number of the chefs it surveyed.
Read from the entry for cheese, mozzarella in the 2008 edition.
Set in bold capitals in The Flavor Bible: very highly recommended by a large number of the chefs it surveyed.
Read from the entry for basil in the 2008 edition.
One is an ingredient of the other
Ratto's pesto is named for the garlic and takes basil when it can be had, marjoram and parsley when it cannot.
Read in La Cuciniera Genovese, eighth edition, 1893, recipe 32, battuto o sapore all'aglio (pesto): a clove of garlic, basil, and in its absence marjoram and parsley, Sardinian cheese and parmigiano, pounded with a little butter and loosened with oil. The Flavor Bible, also cited, sets it in bold in the entry for basil.
A pesto of basil and parmigiano alone, stirred into broth soup.
Read in La Cuciniera Genovese, eighth edition, 1893, recipe 77, minestra al brodo con battuto di basilico: a pesto made only of basil and parmigiano, thrown into the soup just before serving. The Flavor Bible, also cited, sets it in bold in the entry for basil.
Set in bold in The Flavor Bible: recommended by a number of the chefs it surveyed.
Read from the entry for lemons in the 2008 edition.
Set in bold in The Flavor Bible: recommended by a number of the chefs it surveyed.
Read from the entry for basil in the 2008 edition.
Set in plain type in The Flavor Bible: suggested by one or more of the chefs it surveyed.
Read from the entry for basil in the 2008 edition.
Set in plain type in The Flavor Bible: suggested by one or more of the chefs it surveyed.
Read from the entry for pasta in the 2008 edition.
Bonds are drawn from culinary literature and origin-tradition references, tiered by source. Origin means a reference from the place. Witness means the pairing is the place's own and the reference documenting it was written from outside.
The score is cultural weight: how central a pairing is in the tradition that documents it. It is not a prediction of how two materials behave in a formulation and not a measure of chemical affinity. The scale is ordinal, because centrality is a judgement rather than a measurement: 1.0 where the pair is the dish, 0.9 a fixed named form, 0.8 a canonical dish, 0.7 recurrent across many dishes, 0.6 common, 0.5 attested, 0.4 marginal or compound-led.
Each score is set against a named dish and carries that dish in its note. Where a score has not been examined it says so, because an inherited figure and a researched one should not look alike.
The dish is named by a reader who knows the cuisine and cites a source appropriate to it. It has not yet been confirmed inside that source page by page, so a note records what supports a score rather than what has been checked in the book.
Studio Culinar-E, "basil", Pantry Archive, Studio Monk-E, 2026. https://studioculinar-e.com/archive/basil
/archive/basil
Bonds are tiered by source, origin-tradition references first.