Cultural Lunches – Especial Edition for Latino Heritage Month: Argentina

Event date: Oct. 21, Thursday, at 12:30 on TEAMS

Click here to access the event on TEAMS.

You do not have to enroll to attend any of the cultural lunches.

Learn with Chef Rodrigo Cappagli, form Maria Luisa Empanadas how to make an authentic chimichurri sauce.

30 students will receive a delicious Dulce de Leche (contains lactose).

More information on the event, click here.

What is Chimichurri?

This most famous Argentine sauce was probably first mixed together by gauchos – cowboys – who used it to flavor the meat they prepared over open fires when on the pampas.

Depending on who you believe, the name chimichurri comes from the Basque country word tximitxurri, meaning “a mixture of several things in no particular order”, or from a modification of “Jimmy’s curry”. In this case, the eponymous Jimmy was apparently a 19^th Century Irishman or Englishman who was either a meat trader or a freedom fighter, according to various myths. Because his name was difficult for Argentines to pronounce, “Jimmy’s curry” got turned into chimichurri.

Today many households always have a bowl of chimichurri on the table to accompany whatever meat or pasta dishes are being served that day.

Chimichurri essentials

Chimichurri, like many condiments with a long history, has many variations but the purists stick to a preferred blend of chopped parsley, chopped garlic, oregano, red chili pepper flakes, and olive oil with a hint of vinegar.

About Chef Rodrigo Cappagli

"I remember my grandmother, Maria Luisa, making hundreds of empanadas for our Sunday family gatherings. The sound of Tango music playing in her Buenos Aires apartment and the delicious smell seeping from her kitchen are memories that live on through each batch of empanadas I make and share with the world”.