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Italian Parsley vs. Curly Parsley: Flavor, Chemistry and When It Matters

By · Reviewed · 9 sources

Italian vs curly parsley

Italian parsley and curly parsley are the same species, Petroselinum crispum, grown in two leaf forms.12 Italian parsley is the flat-leaf type,34 and it has the stronger flavor.2 That difference only matters when parsley is a main ingredient: in a blind test by America’s Test Kitchen, tasters could not tell the two apart in croutons that used a little parsley, but strongly preferred flat-leaf in tabbouleh and salsa verde.5 Curly parsley is not flavorless, and it holds its own as a garnish.

Side by side

Italian (flat-leaf) parsleyCurly parsley
SpeciesPetroselinum crispum; the RHS and Maryland Extension call it var. neapolitanum134Petroselinum crispum1
FamilyApiaceae (carrot family)1Apiaceae (carrot family)1
Native range of the species (Kew)Northwest Africa and the Balkan Peninsula1Same
Plant and leavesMore open branches with flat leaf blades; the RHS calls them strongly aromatic and dark green23Compact branches with curled leaf blades; Britannica describes parsley leaves as flat or deeply frilled26
Flavor strengthStronger flavored than curly (PROSEA)2Milder2
How tasters described it“Fresh,” “vibrant,” with a “lemon-pepper” astringency (ATK)5“Mild” and “vegetal” (ATK)5
Essential oil in the fresh herb0.04%20.07 to 0.15%2
Leaf oil, German-grown samplesMyristicin 9.1%, limonene 18%, 1,3,8-p-menthatriene about 20%2Myristicin 32%, limonene 14%, 1,3,8-p-menthatriene about 20%2
Main use (PROSEA)Mainly flavoring sauces, soups and stews2Garnishing and seasoning2
PriceNo dated, sourced retail comparison foundNo dated, sourced retail comparison found

The chemistry rows come from one reference and one set of samples, so they show how the two types can differ, not what any bunch in a shop contains. They also show that “stronger flavored” is not simply “more oil”: PROSEA gives curly parsley the higher oil content and flat-leaf the stronger flavor.2 We found no source that explains the gap. For the plant in depth, see our parsley profile.

The names

“Italian parsley” and “flat-leaf parsley” are two names for one herb. The Royal Horticultural Society lists flat-leaved, Italian and plain-leaved parsley as common names for the same plant, and the University of Maryland Extension captions it “Italian or flat-leaf parsley.”34 PROSEA files var. neapolitanum, “or Italian parsley,” inside its flat-leaved group, alongside cultivars sold as ‘Plain’ and ‘Plain Italian Dark Green’.2 See flat-leaf vs. Italian parsley.

PROSEA recognizes a third cultivated group, turnip-rooted or Hamburg parsley, grown for its root rather than its leaves.2

What a blind tasting found

America’s Test Kitchen chopped both types so finely that they looked alike and used each in three of its recipes: tabbouleh, salsa verde and herbed croutons.5 The results:

  • Herbed croutons. The recipe calls for just a small amount of parsley, and tasters could not tell the difference.5
  • Tabbouleh and salsa verde. Here parsley is a major ingredient, and tasters strongly preferred the flat-leaf versions, calling them fresh and vibrant with a lemon-pepper astringency; the curly versions came across as mild and vegetal.5

ATK’s conclusion: if you are just sprinkling a little chopped parsley over a dish for color, either will do, but if parsley is a major player in a recipe, use flat-leaf.5 It adds that flat-leaf is easier to chop than curly.5

That matches PROSEA’s description of flat-leaved parsley as the stronger-flavored type.2 It does not show that curly parsley is tasteless. PROSEA notes that curly parsley’s fresh leaves are used for seasoning as well as garnishing.2

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Differences that change the dish

Parsley as the main event. In tabbouleh and salsa verde, flat-leaf gave the brighter result in ATK’s test.5 By the same logic we would choose it for chimichurri, gremolata or a parsley sauce (editorial). Its flat leaves also look much like cilantro, which Healthline notes when suggesting cilantro as a garnish substitute for flat-leaf parsley,7 so label your bunches.

Parsley as a garnish. Garnishing is an old job for parsley: Britannica says the ancient Greeks and Romans used the leaves as a flavoring and garnish.6 Curly parsley’s ruffled leaves add volume and color on a plate, and its milder flavor won’t compete with the dish; that is editorial. Where a garnish is only a light sprinkle, ATK’s croutons test suggests the choice will not change the taste.5

In cooking. LSU AgCenter groups parsley with the delicate herbs best added in the last minute or two of cooking, since long heat costs flavor and aroma.8 That applies to both types.

Can one stand in for the other?

Yes, though the dish will taste slightly different where parsley is a main flavor. We found no published ratio, so both directions are Method, matching our flat-leaf vs. Italian parsley page.

  • Curly for Italian. Use the same amount. If parsley is a main ingredient, as in tabbouleh or salsa verde, taste and add more; chop it finely. A rule of using twice as much curly parsley circulates, but we found no source for it.
  • Italian for curly. Use the same amount. Chopped finely, flat-leaf works as a garnish, and its stronger flavor is rarely a drawback (editorial).
  • Dried for fresh. See fresh vs. dried parsley and parsley substitutes, which give the attributed dried-to-fresh conversion and other ranked alternatives.

What isn’t known

  • No source we found explains why flat-leaf parsley tastes stronger despite PROSEA’s lower oil figure.
  • The chemistry comes from a single set of German-grown samples; we found no retail survey comparing the two types.
  • Widely repeated claims that curly parsley holds up longer after chopping, turns bitter with age, or is what French recipes mean by “parsley” could not be traced to a source.
  • The ATK result comes from one tasting with three recipes.
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Safety

Culinary amounts of parsley leaf are not a concern for most people. MedlinePlus lists parsley among foods that can change how the blood thinner warfarin works; its advice is not to avoid them but to keep the amount steady from day to day.9 Our parsley profile covers seed oil and other concentrated preparations, which are a different matter.

Footnotes

  1. Petroselinum crispum, Plants of the World Online, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. powo.science.kew.org · Reference work ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  2. I.B. Ipor and L.P.A. Oyen, Petroselinum crispum, Plant Resources of South-East Asia (PROSEA). uses.plantnet-project.org · Reference work ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11 ↩12 ↩13 ↩14 ↩15 ↩16 ↩17

  3. Petroselinum crispum var. neapolitanum, Royal Horticultural Society. rhs.org.uk · Reference work ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  4. “Parsley”, University of Maryland Extension, 2023. extension.umd.edu · Reference work ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  5. “Curly-Leaf vs. Flat-Leaf Parsley”, America’s Test Kitchen. americastestkitchen.com · Publication ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10

  6. “Parsley”, Encyclopaedia Britannica. britannica.com · Reference work ↩ ↩2

  7. SaVanna Shoemaker, “10 Tasty Parsley Substitutes”, Healthline, 2020. healthline.com · Publication ↩

  8. “Flavorful Herbs”, LSU AgCenter. lsuagcenter.com · Reference work ↩

  9. “Taking warfarin”, MedlinePlus, U.S. National Library of Medicine. medlineplus.gov · Regulator ↩