Persillade

Parsley and garlic chopped together and nothing else, with no oil in it and nothing pounded.

Vegan.

Ingredients

• 1 large bunch flat parsley, leaves picked
• 3 cloves garlic
• a pinch of salt

Method

1. THERE IS NO OIL IN THIS AND NOTHING IS POUNDED. Two ingredients, chopped dry on a board. That is the whole thing, and it is why it is on its own page rather than inside the dishes that use it: every other green sauce here has oil beaten into it, and this one must stay dry so it can be scattered into a hot pan and catch. Add oil and it steams instead.
2. THEY ARE CHOPPED TOGETHER, NOT SEPARATELY AND MIXED. The knife carries garlic oil into the parsley and parsley juice into the garlic, and the result tastes of one thing rather than two. Chopped apart and stirred together, you get garlic and you get parsley.
3. IT IS MADE WITHIN MINUTES OF BEING USED. Chopped garlic turns harsh and faintly metallic within half an hour, and chopped parsley goes dull and wet. This is a two-minute job done at the last moment, not something to make ahead.
4. AND IT GOES IN AT THE VERY END OF COOKING, 30 seconds before the pan leaves the heat -- long enough to lose the raw edge, not long enough to brown the garlic. Added early, it burns and turns bitter.
5. Parsley leaves picked off the stalks. The stalks are worth keeping for stock but are too fibrous here.
6. Leaves washed and DRIED COMPLETELY in a cloth. Wet parsley bruises into a paste under the knife instead of chopping.
7. Garlic peeled, the green shoot removed if there is one, and roughly chopped.
8. Garlic and parsley piled together on the board with the pinch of salt.
9. Chopped together with a large sharp knife, the pile gathered back together every few strokes, until fine and even. About 1 minute.
10. Used immediately. For sauteed potatoes or mushrooms: thrown in for the last 30 seconds and tossed.
11. FOR GREMOLATA, lemon zest is chopped in with it, which is a different sauce for a different dish and is worth not confusing.
12. If it must wait, pressed into a cup with cling film on the surface, and used within the hour.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under France · All recipes