Hazelnut Gremolata Recipe

Gremolata is an Italian condiment I adore — a simple, and quickly assembled mix of flat-leaf parsley, lemon zest, and garlic, chopped finely.

It is most traditionally associated with osso buco, and indeed it works wonders (wonders, I tell you!) on any slow-roasted or braised meat dish, sprinkled on just before serving. It tastes fresh and clean, and cuts right through the richness of a stew, brightening the overall flavors by several notches.

But it would be a pity to restrict gremolata to this classic use. You can also:
– stuff it underneath the skin of chicken before roasting (I detail this technique in my post on salt-crusted chicken),
– sprinkle it over roasted eggplant, mushrooms, carrots, or cauliflower,
– use it to garnish soups, especially winter squash soups,
– add it to salads (especially lentil salads) and sandwiches,
– toss it with pasta, white beans, or small waxy potatoes,
– add breadcrumbs and a little bit of oil to form a paste, and spread on fish fillets before baking,
– use it to season steamed mussels or grilled sardines,
– fold it into ricotta or fresh goat cheese to top crostini…

The list goes on and on, so you would do well to mix a big batch whenever you have the ingredients on hand, and keep it in the fridge for a couple of days to add to your cooking and spark new ideas.

And just as the uses are multiple, so too are the possible variations on this glorious trinity: you can use parsley in combination with another fresh herb (I do recommend keeping at least a portion of parsley to retain that flavor thumbprint), you can mix and match citrus zests (orange is also a classic, but grapefruit or bergamot would be inspired twists), and you can add a fillet of anchovy or a few black olives to replace the salt.

I myself like to add roasted hazelnuts to my gremolata for a nutty note, an idea that comes from genius cook Sonia Ezgulian by way of the gremolata bowls she placed on every table when she was a guest chef at Café Pleyel.

And part of my pleasure in making gremolata is that it gives me a chance to use the very nifty hand-cranked mini-chopper I got from Tupperware years ago*. It works a bit like an old-school salad spinner, with a handle and a cord that sets in motion a rotating set of blades (see below). I like the retro-ness of it, and find it is just the thing to produce a gremolata that’s chopped tiny, but not completely ground. Also, handy in the event of a blackout!

Join the conversation!

Do you make gremolata? What’s your version like, and what do you use it on?

*Disclosure: I received this mini chopper for free from the press services of Tupperware France a few years ago, with no obligation to write about it, and no compensation if I ever decided to. All opinions expressed are my own.

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