Italian Herbs and Spices: Garlic, Basil, Oregano, Rosemary, Sage and the Rest

Go looking for a jar of “Italian seasoning” in Italy and you’ll be hard-pressed to find one. Italian cooks are more likely to reach for fresh herbs than a dried blend.¹ The herbs that matter are basil (the heart of Genoa’s pesto), oregano, rosemary, sage, bay leaf and marjoram. Then come garlic, dried chile, and fennel pollen, which cooks in northern Italy have long hand-harvested from wild fennel.

At a glance

A note on “Italian seasoning”

The jar labeled Italian seasoning is an American product. A Tasting Table piece says you’d be hard-pressed to find a bottle labeled “Italian seasoning” in Italy, and that Italian kitchens are far more likely to use fresh herbs than dried.¹ The USDA’s purchasing specification for the blend lists thyme, rosemary, sage, oregano and basil.⁴ See Italian seasoning, Italian seasoning substitutes and herbes de Provence vs. Italian seasoning.

Garlic

Garlic is native from Central Asia to northeastern Iran, but it now grows wild in Italy and southern France. It has a powerful onionlike smell and pungent taste. People have used it for a very long time: ancient medical texts from Egypt, Greece, Rome, China and India mention it. Whether it’s the single most important Italian seasoning is a matter of opinion; no source measures it.

Garlic burns easily. America’s Test Kitchen warns it turns acrid and bitter if it hits hot oil too soon.⁵ On health, NCCIH’s summary is cautious. For example, eating garlic doesn’t seem to lower the risk of stomach cancer.⁶ See garlic, fresh garlic substitutes and too much garlic.

Basil

Sweet basil (Ocimum basilicum) is a mint-family herb native to tropical and subtropical Asia to northern Australia. Italian cooks put the leaves in pizzas, pasta, chicken and cheese dishes, and the famous pesto. Dried basil tastes warm, sweet, aromatic and mildly pungent. It’s a delicate herb, so the LSU AgCenter says to add it a minute or two before the end of cooking.⁷

Pesto takes its name from the Italian verb pestare, to crush. Its best-known form, from Genoa, combines basil, pine nuts, garlic, grated Parmesan and olive oil. Italy’s tourism site dates the first official recipe to 1865.⁸ Basilico Genovese, the protected basil for pesto, can only be grown on the Tyrrhenian side of Liguria under its PDO specification.⁹ The German risk assessor BfR notes that basil pesto may contain high amounts of methyleugenol and estragole, compounds that cause cancer in animal studies, but it hasn’t issued a consumer recommendation.¹⁰

See basil, Genovese basil, dried vs. fresh basil and too much basil.

Oregano

Oregano is essential in Italian pizza and pasta sauces, with a strong smell and a warm, pungent taste. That sharp flavor comes from carvacrol and thymol, roughly 78 to 85% of the essential oil.¹¹ It caught on in the United States after World War II, when soldiers coming home from Italy made it popular.

Dried oregano is the form most Americans know. The University of Delaware’s extension service notes that dried herbs are stronger than fresh,¹² so the popular claim that fresh oregano is too pungent to cook with doesn’t hold as a rule. Buy from a source you trust: an EU-wide check found 48% of oregano samples suspicious of adulteration, mostly with olive leaves.¹³ See oregano, fresh vs. dried oregano, oregano vs. marjoram and good spices for pizza.

Rosemary

Rosemary, now classified as Salvia rosmarinus, is native to the Mediterranean. It tastes pungent and slightly bitter, and it goes with meats, vegetables and soups. America’s Test Kitchen calls rosemary a hearty herb to add early, because its flavor compounds stand up to heat somewhat better than those of delicate herbs.¹⁴ See rosemary, cooking with rosemary and rosemary vs. sage.

Sage

Common sage is native from southwestern Germany to southern Europe. PROSEA lists its main spice uses as sausages, stuffings and soups, and credits its strong smell to thujones.¹⁵ In Rome, sage is one of the three main ingredients in saltimbocca alla romana, with veal and prosciutto; Saveur calls the dish a mainstay of Roman trattorias.² Sage is also widely paired with gnocchi and risotto, though we didn’t find a source that documents those uses. Thujone is why NCCIH says sage may be unsafe in pregnancy, though food amounts are likely safe.¹⁶ See sage, fresh vs. dried sage and too much sage.

Bay leaves

Bay laurel (Laurus nobilis) is native to the Mediterranean. The leaves go in early and come out before serving. J. Kenji López-Alt’s reason is texture: dried bay leaves are tough.¹⁷ There’s a safety reason too. Whole leaves are stiff and can have sharp points and edges, and a published case report describes a bay leaf perforating the bowel.¹⁸ See bay leaves, cooking with bay leaves and too much bay leaf.

Marjoram

Marjoram (Origanum majorana) is in the same genus as oregano, and its flavor is warm, aromatic, slightly sharp and bitterish. We didn’t find a source that documents its particular uses in Italian cooking. See marjoram and marjoram vs. oregano.

Chile and fennel pollen

Dried chile flakes are a finishing sprinkle for pizza and pasta. Fennel pollen is more specialized. Cooks in northern Italy have long hand-harvested it from wild fennel,³ and the food writer Faith Willinger introduced it to Americans, bringing American chefs to a Tuscan butcher shop in the 1990s.¹⁹ See red pepper flakes and fennel pollen.

Related pages

• Mediterranean spices
• Dried herbs vs. fresh
• Flat-leaf vs. Italian parsley
• The master list of herbs and spices