Gia's Italian Kitchen's Podcast

Episode 3.31 - Basilcello....that's right....like Limoncello but with BASIL

• Gia's Italian Kitchen • Season 3 • Episode 31

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BASILCELLO......WHAT?????
After I cut & harvested my basil to make pesto, I left the plants in the ground and the leaves regenerated themselves!!!
So now what?
Well instead of Limoncello I am trying Basilcello!!!   Have you ever heard of this or made it yourself?
Here is phase 1.


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SPEAKER_00:

Hey guys, this is Kelly with Gia's Italian Kitchen. Did you see my videos on social about basil cello? If you didn't, go check it out. It was just a super quick video, but I wanted to also put this on my podcast, and the video is like 40 seconds, so I thought I would just do a voiceover here. Um so anyway, so my friend was in Italy earlier this year, I don't remember what city, but she tried a basil cello that someone had, I don't I think it was in a restaurant maybe. She said it was amazing. You could kind of taste the um, you know, the anise uh or anise, however you say that, um, of the basil, but also the beautiful aroma, and of course it was like this green um tint, and you can drink it with um ice, just pour over ice, or you know, add some club soda to it, or maybe uh sparkling lemonade. Uh, she said it was delicious, so I'm making it. So earlier in the season, I had maybe about a month ago, I had cut on my basil to make all my batches of different pestos, but I left the plants in the ground, and we've actually had a pretty warm fall, and all of the plants started to regenerate, and so the leaves that were out there were actually gorgeous, brand new, large basil leaves. Um, so I cut those off and put them in a large glass jar and covered them with like a high-proof vodka or a grain alcohol. Um I use Everclear in my lemon cello, so that's what I did for this basil cello. Um, because that higher alcohol content tends to, especially for the lemon peel, pull more of that flavor out. So that's my theory on the uh the basil as well. Um and then you make your own simple syrup and it has to steep for weeks, just like the lemon cello does. Some recipes online um that I looked up, you know, say, oh, you can drink it in 24 hours. So I'll try that, but I highly doubt that because a good lemon cello takes at least four weeks to steep and do its magic. So I'm assuming that the basil cello does as well. Um, and other recipes did say that, that you know, 15, 20 days. Um so unfortunately it's not something that you can do um and drink the same day or the next day or that weekend. Um, but it'll be pretty awesome to have it for Thanksgiving and the uh Christmas holiday um as a special drink. So um I am gonna try that and I will post more uh video when I get the well I have to wait a couple more weeks so I can combine the simple syrup with the and strain it and do all that thing to come to the the end of the process. So um I will post the recipe on my website um and it's on social, so I'm on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, tons of videos. Um so please go check those out. Um and please like and share and comment and subscribe and tell your friends and do all those social things to help me grow. So as you know, hopefully, um and if you don't, um the two main things that that Gia's Italian Kitchen does, aside from doing kind of test kitchen stuffs here locally. Um, we've been cooking out of some cookbooks, doing some test recipes, that's been really fun. But my two main services are private dinner parties. So I do those in person and virtual where you select a custom menu. And if you are interested in seeing my menu, just go to my website into my shop, and it there's a download, a free download of my PDF menu at the top of that page. And you can do appetizers, cocktails, mocktails, um, sides, salads, desserts, entrees, brunch, uh, lots of amazing, delicious options. Um, so for virtual, it's super fun for like a girls' cocktail night or even at like a little mini family reunion where again you do a custom menu and we zoom everyone into a private video, and I'm cooking the same stuff that you guys are, so we're all lockstep, and your relatives are all making the same thing. So if your brothers in California, your sisters in Florida, um, and wherever you are, I'm here in the Midwest, and we're all cooking the same thing, and then at the end I hand over the Zoom to you guys so that you can have the video on with your dinner, and and I exit the Zoom so that you can have that private setting. So those are really fun. Um, and then I do employ employer team building events, so those are amazing. So if your company has a culture program and you're looking for unique experiences for your employees, a cooking experience as a team building is pretty darn fun. And who doesn't like to eat? Um, so same concept where we select a custom menu. I can come to you if your company has a corporate kitchen, or if you're local, I have some spaces here that we can rent. Um, or I've done them virtually. Um you can do multiple, you know, if people are working from home, we can zoom people in from home, or multiple locations if you have different um different offices across the country. Um, I did one that we had six locations, and each of the locations, this was so cool, took one dish, and then we kept moving the live to the different locations, and it was like this virtual progressive dinner, and we had about a hundred and sixty people in the different locations. So that was phenomenal. So if you're interested in that, shoot me an email, Kelly K-E-L-L-E-Y at Gia'talian kitchen.biz, Giaz G I A S, Gia's Italian Kitchen.biz B-I-Z. And happy to set up a call of consultation and we can talk about the options that might work best for you. But go to my website into my shop, and there are there's more details in there as well on both of these services. So um anyway, basil cello, I'm pretty excited. I wish I could go drink her right now, but I can't. Uh gotta wait a few more weeks. So uh hope you're having a great day, and we'll talk to you soon. Bye bye.