Hand Tool | Device | Gizmo
When we visited our friends in Townsville last year I noticed they had a very handy little tool for chopping herbs. I didn't know there was such a thing and had been faithfully chopping my herbs by hand for ages.
Once we returned from Townsville I spent some time in kitchen and home ware stores trying to find one, with no luck. I eventually found one in Big W for $10. I love it. It makes chopping herbs so much easier, but I've also used it to chop nuts which really makes that a lot quicker as well, although I'm not too sure how long the blade will maintain its sharpness if I keep doing that.
We had friends over for dinner last night and when I went to chop the dill I remembered this prompt, stopped and got out the camera to take some photos of the mezzaluna and chopping board.
Here's a little history about the mezzaluna, with thanks to google search: The first mezzaluna was used in the 18th century. It was invented by Silvio Pacitti in 1706 and was popularly known as the pizza cutter. It is also known as the crescent knife. The term mezzaluna means half moon in Italian. The mezzaluna is so named after its typical crescent shape. The French called it ‘hachoir’ which means the herb chopper, as it is also widely used for finely chopping herbs.
I wasn't sure of which photo I liked the best so have put both up. They're both very similar, but the mezzaluna is more obviously the subject of the photo, and has quite a bit of bokeh, which is always nice to include.