Italian flat leaf parsley. Is it better?

[CTyankee]

than curly, of course. I think so, but I can't get it when I travel to the midwest.

What do you think? I think it is more aromatic and flavorful. Is that so?

Let me know...

[grasswire]

1. I love flat leaf parsley

I always have it in my fridge. I especially love a huge fat handful chopped into a green salad or a whole bunch chopped into the dinner pasta, whether it's meat sauce or red or creamy. With shrimp? Yum. With white bean salad? Yum.

I think it's a good way to get a bonus bit of nutrition into family members.

[hippywife]

2. I like it better.

And I can get it here in OK. Shouldn't be too hard to find, I wouldn't think.

[CTyankee]

3. I couldn't get it in Door County, WI last summer!

I was amazed that they didn't have it! Anywhere!

Door County is supposed to be the "Cape Cod" of the midwest, but it can't compete if it doesn't even have this parsley...I was deflated by the whole thing...

[hippywife]

4. It is a real drag

when you can't find important ingredients that you need and are used to having. My biggest adjustment to moving from Ohio to Oklahoma when I first arrived was grocery shopping. No, no...I misspoke. That was my second biggest adjustment. Pizza was the first and I never did adjust. :rofl:

[CTyankee]

5. I am so sorry about the pizza thing. It's got to be hard for you.

I would mourn my New Haven pizza if I had to move...thank god I don't, at least until I am gaga...then I won't care, anyway...

[hippywife]

6. I got over it

by experimenting with making my own, which worked out really well in the end.

I hope you don't go gaga so you don't have to leave, but also coz it's a very sad thing to watch happen.

:hug:

[CTyankee]

7. Well, I hope I don't get ditzier than I have been lately...

it's a little upsetting. However, I know much younger folks who try so hard at multi tasking they forget things they SHOULD remember all the time...so there, you guys...

[hippywife]

8. My sister says it's because

the more you put on the front of the shelf, the more falls off the back. LOL One of my residents calls it Intellectual Overload.

I'm doing it, too, and so are so many others I know. Either there's a dementia epidemic or we ARE all trying to do too many things at once.

I'm hoping it's the latter, of course. ;)

[CTyankee]

9. Actually, I have been simultaneousy trying to "front load" with more information!

I am doing an "independent study" of the art of Renaisance Florence. I was not prepared for the extent of the study and found myself awash in painters. I have sorted some of it out and come to my senses, but I will tell you, there is more than you want to even THINK about in the Italian Renaissance!

However, I am retired and believe this kind of research sharpens the older mind. I feel as ditsy as I can be at times, I would be worse if I didn't have my research...it has been a gift. I love it and have learned a lot. I will be in Florence, Italy in September and it will be a great tool...

[hippywife]

10. That is fabulous, CT!

I am so jealous that you get to go there. What a wonderful trip it will be, and even more so with all the research you've been doing.

How very exciting! I hope you have the loveliest of times. :D

[CTyankee]

12. Hey, hippywife, anyone can do it! I have Google and a great public library.

It is so much fun...try it with anything!

Thanks for your good wishes. I think my little band of "broads abroad" as we call ourselves, will do well in Florence...

Hey, if you are interested, there are some spaces available...

[hippywife]

14. Oh, thank you so much for the invite!

If I were single and had some expendable income, I'd take you up on it. Broads abroad sounds like oodles of fun!

It means a lot that you would even ask. :hug:

[CTyankee]

15. You are welcome! We are a great group.

We were six in Portugal and I think we were a bit, er, rowdy. I think we'll be 4 in Florence and more "restrained." I think we could call ourselves "le sei signore straniere." Kind of a rough translation, but OK.

We had fun in Lisbon...don't tell anybody, tho...

[grasswire]

18. scenes from "Mama Mia" are flittering in my mind's eye

Hahaha!

[CTyankee]

23. It was sorta like that, minus the music. I did notice an interesting dynamic

among 6 women "of a certain age." We reverted to a kind of "high school" clique-ishness, which was funny and a bit disturbing...we were on a private art and architecture program with a museum and occasionally joined forces with three gay men on the same tour and it was a hoot. The Florence deal is with Exploritas (formerly Elderhostel) and Trinity College...10 days of study and serious art exploration (we'll supply the serious food and wine exploration on our own!). I'll bring back an uncensored report and post it on DU...

[grasswire]

19. Was the Yale Library any use to you?

Or was the local library sufficient?

I spent some wonderful days on campus looking at 18th century writings of an ancestor, class of 1748. That was very cool.

[CTyankee]

21. My local inter-library system was more than adequate, covering many libraries in the area.

I DID use Yale's beautiful library and the Music School's library attached to it for work I was doing toward a Master's degree (I was at Albertus Magnus's M.A.L.S. program). I also used the Div School Library for work I was doing on a 12th Century nun named Hildegard of Bingen but found many of its books on her to be written in German...so that wasn't too great.

Which college were you in? I sometimes go to Master's Teas if they are open. Also, Yale Law School has good people come and speak. Arianna Huffington was here speaking at the Law School about blogging and First Amendment issues (her daughter Christiana is class of '12) but I missed it...we used to get the Yale Daily News but now must rely on my memory to read it online and I don't...BTW, did you know Bill Clinton is speaking at Class Day this year? It was just announced last week...

[Denninmi]

11. It's available here all the time at most grocery stores.

I think your problem might have been more a small town/rural area vs. urban/suburban issue than a midwest vs. east coast issue.

Grocery stores here routinely carry both the flat and curly. When I travel to the more rural parts of Michigan, I'm amazed by the number of things I can't find in grocery stores. How my sister who lives in rural northern Michigan survives is beyond me. Prices are much higher as well outstate.

[CTyankee]

13. I don't understand it. My little market in Egg Harbor, WI (the Door peninsula) doesn't have it!

The big supermarket in Sturgeon Bay doesn't have it. Don't know what to do.

Egg Harbor has lots of folks from Chicago with summer homes there. They are not exactly poor. What goes with that?

I gues it is just a cultural thing. I don't understand it otherwise...

[htuttle]

17. I can get organic Italian flat leaf parsley a block from my house in Madison

It's less than $2 for a 1" diameter bunch of it. Heck, they even have organic daikon and burdock root. Fresh fennel? You bet.

Then again, that's part of why I've been living on Willy Street for 17 years. :hippie:

[CTyankee]

22. Madison is a different story. My SIL lives in Madison and I find it a pleasant and

sophisticated town. Being a university city of great renown doesn't hurt...

[htuttle]

25. There are probably more local farms near Dane County than Door County, too

It's somewhat flatter around here, for one thing. But the fishing isn't as good.

:hi:

[CTyankee]

26. Wow, I think of the Door Peninsula as VERY flat. When I am there in August it seems

there are just miles and miles of cornfields and cows, cows, cows on dairy farms. My neighbor there is the County Executive and I am going to ask him where he thinks I can find the parsley...he's a real foodie so he might know, but he might never have had it...

[htuttle]

27. LOL, I've probably only visited the pretty places in Door County

I'd look around for some farmer's markets, too. When the weather gets nicer, I'd be surprised if you couldn't find one in your area somewhere.

You might also ask some of the nicer restaurants around you. They're getting their stuff somewhere.

[Warpy]

16. It's really hard to find here in the southwest

unless it's maybe 3 sprigs overpackaged in a plastic case and sold for about four bucks, screw it.

Curly parsley tastes great and is easier to run a knife through, IMO, so I just go ahead and use it. I can't tell that big a difference between the two, honestly.

Now the difference between Italian/Greek oregano and Mexican oregano is astonishing. I'm totally hooked on the latter.

[CTyankee]

24. The way I cut flat leaf parsley: take out the quantity I need from the bunch.

Then I curl the leaves into a little compact bunch and slice it, discarding the tougher end stems. The parsley pops out of its curl in pretty little pieces, ready to go in the pan for saute with olive oil and garlic...and it looks lovely too!

[Warpy]

35. Using kitchen shears and snipping it in a juice glass works, too

I think the main reason nobody stocks it in decent amounts out west is because people would tend to confuse it with the ubiquitous cilantro and complain afterward.

I've done a taste test and if anything, I prefer the curly parsley. It seems to have a slightly brighter flavor.

Good thing because I'm not about to pay that kind of money for three lousy sprigs of the stuff.

[CTyankee]

37. The flat leaf comes in big bunches here, so much so that I wish we could buy just half a bunch.

I will have to test your thesis on this. You are very knowledgeable on food, so I have an open mind.

I must admit the flat leaf has "snob appeal" here in the Northeast and maybe I am part of that...however, my Italian recipes all call for it and it is plentiful so naturally I just buy it.

Yes, I too sometimes get a bit confused if the parsley and the cilantro are too close to each other in the produce display...better to keep them apart!

[pengillian101]

20. Got a sunny window?

Very simple to grow your own in a pot from seeds - and very fun!

[TreasonousBastard]

36. That would be my plan-- howcum no one else thought of it? There's...

also loads of indoor herb garden gadgets and gizmos.

I'm always thinking of starting my own herb garden because I don't use too much of the fresh stuff and at least half of what I buy goes bad.

(But, it has, so far, been easier just to grab a bunch at the store or farmstand than to start a little garden.)

[NashVegas]

28. I've Come To Think Of It

As Italian parsley for non-meat things, and curly for meats.

[CTyankee]

29. Why is one superior over the other for meat/non-meat?

Just wondering what the rationale is...

[hippywife]

30. I bought some yesterday

to put in my sauce today. :hi:

[CTyankee]

31. So it was for non-meat sauce? yes? nt

[hippywife]

32. No, it is a meat sauce.

I've never made that distinction when purchasing it. I only purchase the curly stuff if I can't find the flat-leaf. I can't help thinking of the curly stuff as a garnish, I guess.

[CTyankee]

33. Oh, dear. Surely curly parsley is good for something more, right?

I know the garnish thing you refer to, but I am thinking more about the flavoring of certain dishes. Do you think that curly evinces a different flavor than flat leaf?

[hippywife]

34. I'm really not sure.

Would have to taste them side by side. :shrug:

[NashVegas]

38. Don't Know

I just do ...

[On the Road]

39. I Know Flat-Leafed Parsley is Preferred for Authentic Italian Cooking

but I actually prefer the taste and texture of American parsley.

Since the leaves are curly, they provide more space for air and result in a lighter dish. I make clam sauce with a ton of parsley, so there is a noticeable difference.