Basil (Fresh)

Only the garlic-free kind, and that qualifier decides it. Pesto made without garlic is green at 2 tablespoons, while traditional pesto is defined by the cloves, and one small clove of garlic carries 0.53 g of fructans. Pesto has its own entry with the label checks set out. Blitzing your own with garlic-infused oil standing in for the cloves is the reliable route, and a batch keeps under a film of oil.

You can cook it, you just lose most of what you paid for. The volatile oils that make basil smell like basil come off within a minute or two of heat, leaving a flat, faintly bitter green note behind. Stems are the exception: drop them into a simmering sauce for depth and fish them out before serving. Add the leaves last, and if the dish gets reheated tomorrow, add more then.

It depends which basil job you mean. For the perfume over tomato and mozzarella nothing else quite does it, though fresh oregano or flat-leaf parsley will carry the plate. For Thai basil in a stir-fry, fresh mint and coriander together land closer than sweet basil does. Each of those has its own entry with its own tested serve, so the choice comes down to flavour rather than arithmetic.

Read it like any other jar. Tube basil is usually leaves, oil, salt and an acid, but plenty of brands add garlic, and the front of the pack says basil while the ingredient list says more. Our figure describes fresh leaves only. Tubes are also heavily salted and lose their top notes in processing, so they hold up in a cooked sauce and disappoint on a salad.