Am I the only one who thinks hand-chopping herbs is way overrated these days?

I used to pride myself on fine-chopping parsley and basil by hand, tiny little piles with no bruising. Then about 2 years ago I started using a mezzaluna for big batches and honestly I haven't looked back. I still see chefs on here acting like using a knife is the only way to get proper flavor or whatever. But I ran a special last month at my shop where I prepped 8 pounds of cilantro for salsa verde in under 10 minutes with a mezzaluna and nobody complained. Has anyone else found a tool that gets them roasted by purists but actually works better?

2 comments

2 Comments

jessicaw541mo ago

You ran a special with 8 pounds of cilantro in under 10 minutes with a mezzaluna? That's wild. Did you have to adjust the recipe at all to make it work, or did it just come out the same?

reed.eva1mo ago

My buddy Tom ran a similar thing one time with basil for a pesto special. He ended up having to double the garlic and pine nuts because the mezzaluna was chopping way finer than his usual knife work, so the flavor got too diluted otherwise. He also had to work in batches instead of trying to do all 8 pounds at once, otherwise the pile just slid off the board. Took him almost 15 minutes actually, but the texture was way more consistent than when he uses the food processor. Did the cilantro come out looking uniform or was it a bit ragged around the edges?