Here's a handy tip when using your cubes of frozen herbs. You know how that nice green colour disappears rather quickly when you add them to the pan? Looks more like tomato and tea sauce than tomato and basil?
If you dissolve a little bicarbonate of soda in the water before you freeze the cubes it really helps to preserve the colour when you come to cook them - about a quarter of a teaspoonful to an ice cube tray is about right. If, however, your freezer is already full of cubes waiting to be used.. simply thaw them in a teacup to which you add about a saltspoonful of bicarb before they go in the sauce and you'll get the same effect. Cheefully green herbs - although of course in a long-cooked casserole they'll darken as usual.
