Woman in the Garden, by Gabriele Münter.
Recipe below: Lemon Verbena Olive Oil Cake
Every year around mid-September a lump settles in my throat. Agita with a big dose of reflux. It’s my body telling me my herb garden is winding down. I dry, I oil, I pickle, I freeze, trying to preserve what I can. But the results are never as transforming as the sight of moist leaves, wet soil, heavy bending plants, and aromas so powerful they can send me on a mini-LSD trip.
After months of being tended, these gorgeous herbs have taken on the role of flamboyant relatives. I’ve cheered and berated them. I’ve watched some struggle while others went into botanic overdrive. But now my luscious green family is ready to head underground. I must get get hyper-creative.
This year along with all the usual herbs, I’ve got Thai basil, fennel, anise hyssop, tarragon, lovage, rose geranium, and two lemon verbena plants that are still high and mighty. The aroma of the lemon verbena is unreal, smelling more like the most intense room freshener than like anything that could occur in nature. And therein lies its beauty. But it’s also tricky to cook with. The leaves are tough, not tender like basil, so they need to be minced or pulled out. Used raw they’re wonderful (they makes an amazing ice cream), but wet heat, as in a braise, dulls their brightness. Baking, applying a good dry heat, nudges them to reveal unforeseen qualities.
Here I finely chop the leaves from a few large branches and add them to an olive oil cake I make variations on all the time. What an aroma. The verbena, my fruity Sicilian olive oil, and a touch of vanilla merge in the heat to produce a complex taste that I wouldn’t have expected. I guess I imagined just lemon, but what I got was something rounder.
Thank you lemon verbena. Such a nice way to wrap up the growing season. Even my agita is starting to go away. But what am I going to do with all that drooping anise hyssop?
One of my lemon verbena plants, and Buddy behind the door.
Lemon Verbena Olive Oil Cake
(Serves 8)
1 tablespoon or so soft butter for the pan (or use olive oil)
1½ cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
3 big branches fresh lemon verbena, the leaves finely chopped (about ⅓ cup chopped)
⅔ cup extra-virgin olive oil (not a biting green Tuscan one, but a more mellow type; I used Olio Verde, a lush Sicilian brand)
The grated zest from 2 lemons, and the juice from 1 of them
1 tablespoon limoncello liqueur
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 large eggs
¾ cup sugar
Powdered sugar for dusting.
Butter a 9-inch springform pan. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
Sift the flour with the baking powder and the salt. Add the chopped lemon verbena, mixing it in.
In a small bowl, mix the olive oil with the lemon zest and juice, the limoncello, and the vanilla.
In the bowl of a standing mixer or with a handheld mixer, beat the eggs with the sugar until they’re light and fluffy. Gradually add the flour to the egg mixture until it’s just blended in. Add the olive oil mixture, and mix quickly, until just blended.
Pour the batter into the pan and bake until golden and springy in the center, about 35 minutes. Let cool and then dust the top with powdered sugar.
