Too Much Basil!

rchou

I added too much basil in a big vat of spaghetti sauce I was cooking up and now it tastes like a christmas tree. How do i fix this, or at least make it better?

Thegreatcow

Hrm that's a toughie, it heavily depends on what kind of sauce you're dealing with here. If it's some kind of oil based/cream sauce you could make a pesto by blending in some olive oil and puree'd pine nuts. If it's a marinara the only thing I can think of that can blunt the effects of the basil would be some shredded mozzarella/Parmesan cheese or adding cream directly to the sauce to make sort of an herby vodka sauce.

FirstComradeStalin

More sauce?

rchou

I added a lot more tomato puree, which seems to have made it a bit more tolerable. Going to try drowning in parmesan next. Man, it's a lot of sauce...

Belruel

freeze what you don't eat immediately, then when you are hungry in a week or two just thaw that bitch out.

LavaKnight

You could add something spicy to it to counteract the basil taste. This is probably not the best idea (adding fuel to a fire and all that), but I like spicy and I'd probably just drown it out.

RUNN1NGMAN

Garlic would probably help balance it--they're kind of complimentary.

Tofystedeth

Add a little sugar? Also, have you added the meat in if you are meating this sauce? That will often absorb some of the extra herbs.

Enc

If you haven't added any to your sauce, a bit of brown sugar will mellow down other flavors. I usually add brown sugar, basil, minced garlic, and red and black pepper to my sauces, too much of one can be balanced by a bit more of everything else.

More sauce overall is still the best idea, though.

Darkewolfe

I don't know if it would work for spaghetti sauce, but I once put waaay too much garlic in a chili. I covered it with cheese, Tabasco and bread that was eaten with it. I don't think the hot sauce would work for you, though crushed red pepper might. Garlic bread as a side also might help round the dish out.

spazmojack

rchou wrote: »

...too much basil...

i didn't even think such a think existed, i'd eat a basil salad if someone made one for me.

in an effort to help you out though, try some sugar, a squirt of lemon juice, and a nice heap of oregano if you feel your sauce proportions are getting out of control.

ElJeffe

Depending on the consistency of the sauce, the basil can be made to float to the top. In theory, I suppose you could add water, heat to near-boiling, avoid stirring, and then scoop the basil right off the top of the sauce. Then boil it down to remove the excess water. If you were making an alfredo sauce, it would likely already be thin enough to just let it set for a few minutes before scraping off the basil.

But adding more tomato sauce is probably easier. If you added a truly ridiculous amount of basil, it'd probably be easier to scoop out a little of the basil-y sauce, dump the rest, and add that to a new batch of tomato sauce, and then re-add whatever other ingredients.