What Are Parsley leaves and How Can I Use Them?

A parsley sprig is a single intact stem of fresh parsley with its leaves attached. Recipes call for this form when you want to lift the herb out later or lay it down whole.

You will see "2 parsley sprigs" in a stock, or "a sprig for garnish" on a plated dish. It is the same plant as chopped parsley leaves, just left uncut.

Most recipes that ask for sprigs mean flat-leaf (Italian) parsley, though curly works fine when the sprig is decorative. The distinction only matters once you chop, where Italian parsley carries more flavor.

Italian parsley is the flat-leaf variety of parsley, with broad, pointed, deep green leaves that look a lot like cilantro.

Cooks reach for it over the frilly curly type because it tastes of more: a clean, peppery, grassy flavor with a faint celery edge, where curly parsley is milder and was bred as much for looks as for taste.

If a recipe just says "parsley" and you want it to register, this is the one to buy. It chops cleanly into flat ribbons instead of the bristly confetti curly leaves make, and it holds up better to brief cooking.

You may see it labeled flat-leaf parsley or Italian flat-leaf parsley. It is the same herb, Petroselinum crispum var. neapolitanum, and a kitchen workhorse from Italy through the Middle East.

Parsley flakes are dried parsley leaves, crumbled into small green bits that keep for months in the spice rack.

They are the convenience form of an herb that is usually used fresh, and the swap is not one-for-one. Drying strips parsley of most of its volatile aroma, so flakes taste muted and faintly hay-like next to the grassy snap of the fresh herb.

What they keep is color and a mild background note, which is exactly what a lot of everyday cooking needs.