The best basil in the world is grown in a small village on the Ligurian coast just west of Genoa. Picked at the height of ripeness, after just the right number of sunny days and temperate nights, the delicate basil is perfect in the pesto for which Liguria is justly famed.
Unfortunately, many more people use fresh basil than live within driving distance of Genoa. And even on the Ligurian coast, nature does not always provide perfect weather. But a close approximation—crisp and recognisably peppery with the right anise undernotes, perhaps not quite vibrant enough to make a Genoese chef do cartwheels, but better than the limp stuff in plastic sachets sold in supermarkets—can be found in a few shipping containers at the back of a car park in north Brooklyn, just down the block from a synagogue and around the corner from a petrol station.
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