What is the proper way of bringing the flavor out of dry herbs like oregano and basil?
In the US I use fresh herbs to make my pizza sauce. But since I've moved to Norway they don't have any fresh herbs that even resemble the flavors that I'm used to in the US. After recreating my pizza sauce I found that sweating the herbs increased the flavor of the sauce.
Best Answer
Dry herbs are slower to release their flavors than fresh herbs; they will need extra cooking time to impart their full flavors, so add them to the dish sooner. Since they are less delicate and need the moisture, you may also want to add them along with a liquid, to help extract out the flavors. Crushing the larger-leaf herbs up a bit may also help. Use less dried herb than you would with fresh, because they are more concentrated.
Although these will help, the sad truth is that even the best-dried herbs will not have the subtle flavors of fresher ones.
Edit: One other technique you might use (if there's minimal cooking of other ingredients) is to soak them in oil for a long time to extract flavors. I would suggest an overnight soak in olive oil. You can get more flavor out if you heat the olive oil before letting it sit to soak; something like 50C/125F is a reasonable temperature to dissolve more flavor compounds, without damaging the more delicate ones.