jasmine's and sharon's favorite gadget

The Down-Home Holiday Guide to Kitchen Gadgets

The Mezzaluna comes with bowls, chopping boards, or alone, $15 and up

Two passionate reviews for the Mezzaluna (single blade)

Jasmine's Mezzaluna channels her Italian spirit  - I fell in love with this rocking half moon knife watching my Italian friend Sabrina's mama chopping veggies and herbs in their farm house kitchen in Umbria with a waft of sunshine and rich tomato-y sauces in the air and vino flowing! Molto Bene!!!  It's a real Italian mama tool  -  you can rock it back and forth while talking with your free hand - freestyle Italian cooking!! I love the feel of the motion and the crescent shape as well as the resultant finely chopped and rocked herbs!

For Sharon, the Mezzaluna makes chopping orgasmic - 

My Mezzaluna! I know that sounds like a song your feisty Italian grandmother used to sing but it’s really the most amazing kitchen tool I’ve ever had.  The translation is ‘half moon’. Doesn’t that sound romantic?…"Mezzaluna" said with an Italian accent and a glass of red wine nearby  makes chopping orgasmic. It has something to do with the rocking motion and the smell of great food in the making.

The sky is the limit with this simple kitchen apparatus.  I use it for spices, mushrooms, nuts, vegetables, to make breadcrumbs for stuffing…and on and on.  Just throw something into the rounded wooden bowl and rock back and forth with the sharpened cutting edge for a very hands-on product.  Here’s the ridiculously amazing part: you can use the back of a glass or a pestle in the indented bowl part it to  crush ingredients (like graham crackers for crusts!).  Also, feel free to use the cutting edge for a pie or pizza (I’ll never tell), and if you flip the wooden board over, you have a lovely small square cutting board. There is something so archetypical about it.

Like some great Italian chef, circa 1750, is pressing my hands back and forth for me...oooh Antonio!