I was cooking some mostaccioli pasta yesterday and needed to prepare a red meaty sauce. The cornerstore had no basil left so for a moment I was concerned about the outcome.

What I did have at home was both coriander and continental parsley to green the sauce up a bit. In the end I chopped up some flat leaf parsley and used my usual selection of spices consisting of oregano, pepper and salt.

I was amazed by the result! The continental parsley added so much flavour to the sauce and it really stood out. I may have been  slow to realise the usefulness of this parsley in hot cooking but I’m glad I found it.

The sauce I made contained the following:

• 250g of minced meat
• Chopped continental parsley
• 150g of tomato paste
• 3 peeled and diced fresh tomato
• 1 cup of white wine
• Fine dried oregano
• Pepper
• Salt

The sauce tasted so fresh and cool. I can’t wait to add continental parsley to other dishes in the future.