Cool Tool

I have to admit, I'm a bit of a gadget junkie. Having a small kitchen with limited storage means that every drawer and cupboard is crammed full of all the special tools and equipment that I've fallen for.  Some of it sits languishing for ages after I've bought it and never used it, while other items sit abandoned after I've used it and discovered it's not quite as wonderful as I imagined.

The tool I'm talking about today was one of the former category.  I'd heard of mezzaluna knives before, and then I was watching Nigella Lawson's show one day when she used one.  It looked super handy, so I stopped by Bed, Bath & Beyond one day and picked one up.  I then put it in a drawer and forgot about it.  Well, except for the fact that the package was clogging up my tool drawer and sometime got jammed in there so I couldn't get the drawer open.  In any case, it was abandoned. 

Until this week!  I was making a ricotta dip from Martha Stewart Living magazine, and it required a bunch of chopped herbs.  Rather than neatly stacking a quarter cup of basil and chiffonading it like I usually do, I was inspired to whip out that mezzaluna and give it a whack.  It worked great!  Way less chintzy than one of those choppers that you whack repeatedly (and my father-in-law swears by), but super efficient.