Rosemary Oil

We recently bought a pizza stone and have been making our own pizzas on a Friday night. Nothing beats home-made pizza dough and it is so quick to make using the Kitchenaid. One of our favourite pizzas is a rosemary pizza, where we drizzle olive oil and scatter crushed/bruised rosemary, sea salt flakes and shaved parmesan on the base. Delicious!

We have started making our own rosemary infused olive oil using the warm infusion method. It tastes wonderful on our rosemary pizza.

Recipe:
1 cup good quality extra virgin olive oil
Handful of rosemary sprigs (washed and completely dry)
teaspoon peppercorns

Warm the olive oil, rosemary, and peppercorns in a small saucepan for a couple of minutes. Allow to cool and then pour into a sterilised and dry bottle.

As we only had some small bottles on hand we used a fine sieve to filter out the rosemary and peppercorns as we didn’t want them to get stuck in the bottle. (We only make small quantities as infused oil need to be used within a week or so).

Please note: The herbs and bottle should be completely dry, and the infused oil should be refrigerated and used within a week. The Olive Oil Source has some good information about making and using infused oils, and precautions for avoiding botulism.

Spring has finally arrived in our part of the world. I spent some time in the garden this morning replanting our herb garden. We now have continental parsley, curly leaf parsley, basil, oregano, coriander, mint, chives, and chillies. We live in a coastal area with strong winds, so we plant our herbs in pots that can be relocated around the garden as the summer progresses.

There is nothing nicer than being able to pick your own fresh herbs to add to salads and meals.

Are there any herbs you can’t live without?