Put some stems in a bottle of white vinegar. It turns a pretty pink or burgandy. It makes a good hostess gift. Barb

As daisyduckworth said, you can use it like any sweet basil, but finding ways to take advantage of the color are always great.

Last year we made a purple basil sorbet, which was great, though a bit unusual. It would make a great palate cleanser between courses of a meal, or it would work to serve a scoop of it in a bowl of gazpacho. Some people love it as-is.

We made a purple basil pesto, too, but it didn't hold its color as well as we'd hoped. The taste was great, but it didn't have the striking visual effect we were aiming for.

I think it would make a great Caprese salad with unusually colored tomatoes (like yellow ones, perhaps?) -- tomato slices, basil leaves, fresh mozzarella.

You can use it chopped in a fresh tossed salad like mesclun salad greens or a spring salad mix with a vinegrette dressing topped with fettuccine cheese.

You can also take a mushmelon, cut it in half, remove the seeds, take a melon baller and remove the meat inside. Mix the melon meat with 1 tbsp honey, grapes, dried raisins, sunflower seeds, fennel leaves, and basil leaves, and buttermilk ranch bottled dressing. Yum! Yum!

You can also do a chicken recipe. Soak 2 cups cooked chicken in one bottle basil vinegrette. 2 cups chopped paste type tomatoes, 1/4 cup chopped onions, 1/4 cup meditterean olives, 1 - 2 tblsp chopped purple basil. Mix everything together. Serve hot or cold

You can also do an onion, watercress, basil sandwich.

Here is a link that might be useful: greenhouseland

Totally agree on the colorful caprese: I like to grab a few leaves of purple basil and a few of green, and chop them up together. They make a beautiful salad.

I Also use it on burgers, hotdoggs, kabobs, sausages, or any meat sandwiches along with chives and parsley. Chopp them all up and sprinkle over those sandwich meats.In the middle east basil is used a lot with all kinds of kabobs. It is good for digesting fatty food and protein just like members of onion family, without onion breath.Actually basil, parsley, thyme, .. can hide garlic smell too.
Basil is best used fresh, not in cooking. Add it to your cooking during the last minutes.

PLEASE Can you all post closeup pics of your purple basils,?????
so I can see if they are like mine... Have so many volunteers.. Just wanna make sure that is what it is.....
I got a start from a local guy gardener via CL and volunteers came in like crazy...
Thanks
Jean

Try google images.

FataMorgana

Can someone tell me how to dry herbs..I have purple basil, garden sage and hot and spicey oregano.. Thanx

Sharon--there are many ways to dry herbs. Searching this forum can pull up many discussions of it. I'll post a link below. Also, it's sometimes nice to just start a new post that changes topic. One link talks of parsley, but it's applicable to others. To search within the herbs, type a query in the search box at top of herbs homepage. It should pull up a drop down to limit search within Herbs forum.

As far as the original topic--other than just using as reg basil, Gardeners a Supply Co website has a great purple pesto recipe with sun dried tomatoes. I freeze as much of that as I can.

Drying parsley

Drying Herbs

Purple Pesto

I read the forum and found many things that I was going to ask here !! Tomorrow I will be repotting my purple basil as it is in to small of a pot.. I cut a few of the green leaves off to dry and will put it back in full sun.. Thank you for all your help

Yup, green purple basil is pretty normal for me. I quit with red Rubin because of it! The one I have now is "Rosie" seed from high mowing and I've had good luck with it not reverting as much so far.

Happy to answer questions--just didn't want to re type a bunch of basics. Where are you located? It can make a difference--I can get away with a lot here in Denver that more humid locales can't.

I live in Lake Charles, Louisiana..very humid here.... I believe I am in zone 9 or 9b

For very humid, I would consider a dehydrator or microwave for drying. I've never had to do the dehydrator, but do use microwave for tarragon with good results.

Thanks so much X.... I want to tell you that you have the best site ever !!