What's your favorite basil recipe?

Or, a Thai dish (no idea what the name is): saute boneless chunks of chicken in a little oil with onion, basil, keffir lime leaf, Thai chilis, serve with rice.

1/4 cup olive oil + 3 tbsp balasamic vinegar + 3 tbsp lemon juice + salt + pepper

Mix, add 1 lb of large-chopped tomatoes, 1 oz of chopped basil, 8 oz of chopped fresh mozzarella.

Cook 2 cups of pasta (penne works great) --> mix with rest, serve immediately.

That recipe is for 4 servings; it holds up well for lunch the following day.

You can leave the keffir leaves out, since you can't find them most places and they're not always the best quality when you do -- it benefits from a little acidity near the end of cooking if you have a lime handy, just to bring the flavors out. And you can use sriracha instead of the Thai chiles if you like, you've got more predictable spice levels that way.

Just remember never to let it cook too long or at too high a heat (if you're going to use it on pizza, put it under the cheese to insulate it), because the volatile oils break down and cause the same bitterness as rancid fat.

(Also, re: ice cream -- when you eventually get an electric mixer, an electric ice cream freezer or any other ice cream maker is pretty much superfluous if you don't mind sticking to ice creams without chunks of things in them. I have one I never use, because I simply make better ice cream by whipping in the air with an immersion blender and stabilizing it with an egg yolk.)

(Sriracha is amazingly good on hot dogs, by the way -- believe it or not, I think hot dogs and Ruffles potato chips are my favorite things to eat it with.)

How it started was: I found a small bottle of both kinds in an Indian foodstore near me. I used the chili garlic in several stir fries and the sriracha on hamgurgers, mixed w/ketchup for french fries, on egg sandwiches, etc. I just had to buy a case of each after be/c I was hooked!

I'm so happy.

Any strategies for keeping a basil plant healthy? Been careful with harvesting leaves, but it's gotten all wilty in the past couple of days. I'm not good at keeping plants alive in general, so fate is working against me.

OTOH, the pesto I've been making is A+++

has it flowered? it's been a long time since I grew basil but mine used to wilt after it flowered, and I'd just prune it back a bit and it'd come up good again. but that's if it's already pretty established.
the only other thing I can think of is that basil is super fussy about watering...in a pot they often need water almost daily, BUT they pitch a fit if you over water. so it'll wilt if it has too much or not enough water. so maybe start playing with the watering situ and go from there. if the soil is even remotely dry, give it a drink.

etc

Harvested a ton of leaves from it (yay, more pesto!) and it's perking up a bit with new growth, but still haven't figured out just the right amount of watering.

been eating sooo much pesto lately

Back when I had it on a south-facing fire escape and I didn't water in the morning before work, it would be so droopy by 7pm that it seemed like it had never had a phloem or xylem in its life, but with water would perk up before dark. Always was healthy that way.

I love it in just salads mixed with other greens. I also like it in Mexican hot chocolate.

pesto is the bomb

i just had a smoked turkey & pesto sandwich for lunch

bomb