Basiled

Take perfect fried or poached eggs and set each one on a good thick slice of “basiled” tomatoes placed on fitted rounds of buttered toast spread with anchovy paste or little Portuguese sardines.

Neither tortelloni—overgrown tortellini—in a basiled tomato sauce with cream drizzled over at the last minute nor an aristocracy of sea creatures in nests of thin capellini pasta is especially moving.

Basiled Noodles

And with help from Sharon Kebschull Barrett’s Desserts From An Herb Garden (St. Martin’s), gardeners can add natural flavor to after-dinner treats (try the basiled peaches bruschetta with pineapple mint custard sauce).

Minted meat balls, basiled goat cheese, mango and cilantro salsa, sushi.

Basiled Tomatoes

It didn’t take long before I nodded off at my desk dreaming of eating buttered scampi atop basiled pasta in a breezy Portofino cafe with Doc Holliday.