Parsley & Garlic (PG) paste
Consider this your base paste for any manner of dishes - from stirring through pasta, to whipping up a salad dressing, or simply serving atop fish or roasted veg.I like to think of garlic as the white t-shirt of aromatics, because it goes with everything, and parsley is a bit like a trusty silky scarf for extra colour and pop. You can use either flat-leaf or curly parsley for this recipe, but you’ll find that curly, with its dryer, more fibrous texture, actually works best… For once, something that curly parsley can be good for, beyond dressing up a butcher’s display! The stalks of parsley are quite wet, so if you’re harvesting from your home crop, prioritise the leaves over the stalks if you can. I’ve intentionally kept this sauce seasoning free, so that you can season as you go, but if you’re planning on using it all at once, it pays to pinch in some salt flakes, blitz and taste for seasoning before pulling everything out of the food processor. Lemons are abundant in gardens at the moment too, so make friends with your neighbourhood fruit tree afficiandao, and you’ll be laughing. The lemon will help to bring the pH of the mix down, extending its shelf-life. If you’d prefer a rougher texture, more like a chimichurri, finely chop the parsley and garlic on a board, zest and juice the lemon, and loosen with olive oil.
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Ingredients
- 1 bunch parsley (100g) leaves and stalks roughly chopped
- 1 head of garlic approximately 10 cloves garlic (40g) peeled
- Zest and juice of 1 lemon
- 1 cup (250ml) extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tsp salt flakes
Instructions
- Using a food processor or blender, blitz the parsley, garlic, lemon zest and juice, oil and salt together until a fine paste forms, scraping down the sides as needed.
- Transfer to a clean container with a tight-fitting lid and store in the fridge for up to a week, or pop into ice cubes and freeze to use over 6 months.
