by Jo Casamento Gerges

After having our own pizza oven for 5 years, we started putting our own home made parsley oil on the pizzas after they come out of the oven.  Makes all the difference.

This is also great with potato salads, drizzled on oven roast veggies etc.

It came about after we started growing our own parsley which went feral & we had so much of it we had no idea what to do with it all.

I also used to freeze it into ice cube freezer bags so I would just take out what I need for when my home grown stuff was out of season.

Ingredients:

2 large bunches of Italian flat leaf parsley, washed and the main stem removed. No need to be to fussy with the stems as it all gets blitzed in the blender.

1 cup olive oil

Sea salt, to taste

Method:

While you are preparing your parsley, put a full kettle of water on to boil.

After washing your parsley, leave it to drain in a sieve or colander in the sink.

Once the water has boiled, pour the water evenly over the parsley, wilting it.

Immediately rinse the wilted parsley with cold tap water until cooled.

Using your hands, squeeze out as much water as you can from the parsley and place into a blender with the olive oil and some salt.

Blend until completely smooth and until you have a gorgeous bright green ‘smoothie’ looking oil.

If you prefer a runnier consistency, add more oil.  Check seasoning & add pepper if you want to at this stage.

I find it works best to use it out of a squeeze bottle.

Storage:

Don’t refrigerate as the olive oil will solidify. Freeze whatever you don’t use!