Tips to Cutting Basil

Fresh Basil is one of those lovely additions to almost any dish.  While some herbs tend to have a stronger flavor, and don't always match up as a pleaser to every one's taste palate (i.e. cilantro, thyme, rosemary, etc.), I have yet to meet someone that doesn't like the joy of fresh basil.  And somewhere along the line, I picked up the trick to cutting these Basil ribbons:

Find the two biggest basil leaves and set them aside.  Take the remaining leaves and stack them, one on top of another.  Sandwich those leaves in between the two bigger pieces.

Taking one of the side edges, collapse together the big top and bottom leaves, and slowly roll all the leaves over into a circular log. 

Lightly hold the log together and slice down with your knife, about 1/2 cm thick.

Voila, you have beautiful basil strips!