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10/20/1999 Archived Entry: "Questions about parsley and cooking wine"

I found the two following questions in my e-mail this morning. They are such often-asked questions – and good questions -- that I thought I should post them here – with my answers, of course.

Q. When a recipe calls for parsley, does it mean the curly one or the flat leaf?

A. Almost always these days, recipe writers mean flat leaf parsley, which is also called Italian parsley. I remember a time, however, when flat leaf parsley was difficult to find in supermarkets and curly parsley was readily available. Now, it seems to me, the situation has reversed. Sometimes I want curly parsley and I can’t find it.
“What’s the difference?”, you may well ask.

We used to say that Italian parsley had better flavor, more flavor, but, in fact, that situation has sort of reversed, too. I often find flat-leaf parsley lacks flavor and since I most often use parsley as a seasoning, not a garnish, I want flavor. I’ve found that the darker, coarser flat-leafed parsley is better than the lighter, feathery parsley. You have to shop carefully, even for parsley. If all I can buy is mild parsley – I go so far as to tear a leaf off in the market and taste it – I use the tender stems along with the leaves because stems have lots of flavor. Just don’t use the coarse stems that might be tough or ugly in a dish. If the curly parsley has better flavor, and often it does, I buy it instead. Truly, you can use either in your cooking.

There is one place, however, when I definitely want curly parsley instead of flat. That’s in salads. For instance, in the summer, I often make tabbouleh, the Middle Eastern parsley and bulgar salad. I like curly parsley in that because it has volume and the salad comes out fluffier. I also make a salad of parsley, crumbled feta, and pitted dark olives – Kalamata, Gaeta, round purple Greek, and oil-cured olives are my favorites – and prefer the curly variety for the same reason.

Q. When a recipe calls for white wine, what type do you use?

A. The simple answer is: Whatever I have that’s open already and in the refrigerator.

If nothing is already opened, instead of opening a bottle for the small amount of wine I may need in a recipe, I use dry vermouth. Dry vermouth is a white-wine based beverage (aperitif wine) flavored with herbs. It is mild enough to go into most dishes as “dry white wine,” although its alcohol content is higher than table wine. I like to use French or Italian dry vermouth because it is made for drinking as a beverage in its own right. American vermouths are, in general, formulated for mixing with gin (or vodka) for Martinis and is very light in flavor. Still, if that’s what you have around, use it. Vermouth is very inexpensive and imported vermouths are only slightly more expensive than domestic.

The rule of thumb about cooking wine is that it should be good enough to enjoy drinking it. Do not – ever, ever, ever – buy what they sell as “cooking wine” or “cooking sherry” in the supermarket. That’s bad wine – wine you would never drink for its own sake -- with salt added.

I suppose it should go without saying that if a savory recipe calls for white wine, it means dry white wine. But there, I’ve said it anyway.