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Flavor up soups, salads, pastas, and bread with this easy gremolata recipe that’s packed with fresh herbs and quick to make. It’s a delicious, easy-to-make blend of parsley, lemon zest, and garlic!

When you’re looking for a quick way to take any dish up a notch, turn to homemade gremolata! It’s quick to make with just 3 ingredients.
And for the uninitiated, this is a delicious Italian inspired recipe. It has parsley, garlic, and lemon zest and can be used as a dressing or garnish.
Reader rating
“I had forgotten how delicious this stuff is! Excellent in stews and soups too, it brightens the flavors, reminds me of summer.” —Elizabeth

grab these ingredients
Gremolata can be made with ingredients that are likely sitting right inside your fridge and pantry. Jump to the recipe card for the quantities.
- Parsley: This recipe begins with loosely packed Italian flat parsley. (The difference between Italian and curly parsley here.)
- Lemon: Use one lemon for its zest. I recommend keeping the rest of the lemon in the fridge to use the juice later on a delicious pasta! (Gremolata pasta, anyone?!)
- Garlic: Finally, finish up the dish with fresh garlic. Powder won’t work for this recipe, as we want the zingy flavor of a fresh clove!

Gremolata Tip
Interested in adding more flavor to your gremolata? Adding a good, high-quality olive oil will give it more of a sauce consistency while adding flavor. You can also add some crunch with pine nuts or a bit of heat with chili flakes.

How to make Gremolata
This gremolata recipe is ready in as little as 5 minutes. With a recipe that quick, it’s the perfect addition for nearly any dinner! Grab a cutting board, knife, and grater – let’s get started. This is just an overview, though. Jump to the recipe card for the full instructions.
Step 1: Prepare the Parsley
First, remove the thick stems from the parsley, and then wash and thoroughly dry the leaves. Finely chop – it should reduce down to about 1/2 cup of finely chopped parsley.

Step 2: Prepare the Garlic
Simply grate the garlic.
pro Tip
Grate the garlic and then the lemon to make cleaning your grater easier. The lemon juices will help flush out that sticky garlic!

Step 3: Prepare the Lemon
Wash and dry the lemon, and then zest just the yellow portion. Avoid grating any of the white pith layer, which can be bitter.

Step 4: Chop the Ingredients
Transfer the parsley, garlic, and lemon zest to a cutting board to mix everything by chopping it together. Boom, you now have gremolata!


How to Zest a Lemon
To zest a lemon, you can go the easy route with a cheese grater or potato peeler! If you don’t have those tools on deck, a good old kitchen knife will do. Lightly grate the outer layer of the lemon to remove the peel. As mentioned above, try not to get too deep into the white part!


How to use gremolata
Now that your gremolata recipe is ready to go, you need something to enjoy it with! Try the sauce incorporated into one of these dishes.
- Vegan Garlic Bread: Take it up a notch by adding a gremolata spread on top!
- Stuffed Egglant Parmesan: This is so delicious with a sprinkle of gremolata!
- Lemony Gremolata Noodles: Or use this gremolata as a pasta sauce on these.
- Tuscan White Bean Soup: Sprinkle it over this soup.

How to Make Gremolata (Italian Parsley Condiment)
Ingredients
- 1 cup loosely packed Italian flat parsley, about ½ a bunch
- 1 lemon
- 1 clove garlic
Instructions
- Parsley: Remove thick stems from parsley. Wash and thoroughly dry the leaves. Finely chop – you should end up with about ½ cup of finely chopped parsley.
- Garlic: Finely grate the garlic.
- Lemon: Wash and dry the lemon, then zest just the yellow portion (avoid grating any of the white pith layer, which can be bitter).
- Chop: Transfer parsley, garlic, and lemon zest to a cutting board to mix it all by chopping it together.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information calculated by Sarah Bond, degreed nutritionist.















Thanks for the post, I just got the ingredients. I had forgotten how delicious this stuff is! Excellent in stews and soups too, it brightens the flavors, reminds me of summer.
So tasty right!? Enjoy! 😀