Let’s just put oregano on everything!

If you order the magnificent Italian Mix sub at Roma Imports in Saratoga Springs, the last thing they’ll do is shake on some dried oregano. Likewise with the surprisingly good #2 regular ordered “Mike’s Way” at the Jersey Mike’s chain. And we’ve taken to doing the same thing with salads at my house. Instead of composed dressings like my Skinny Vinaigrette, we just add some olive oil and balsamic or red wine vinegar, liberally incorporate salt and pepper, then finish with a shake of oregano.

This spice also figures prominently in many Italian-influenced dishes, like the tomato pies we were comparing recently. It’s also a key add-in to menudo, that legendary Mexican hangover cure. We even found a recipe for a lemon-oregano shortcake. And when I was holed up in a hotel room in a kitchen this past weekend and needed to cook an emergency kebab dinner, which spice did I go out and grab at Trader Joes? You guessed it, oregano.

Fresh oregano plants. I find the taste too mild and refer the dry stuff. Photo by Garitzko, via Wikipedia Commons.

Oregano has a bitter, herbaceous flavor profile that turns savory foods into something more complex. If you don’t have dried herbes de Provence or marjoram in the house, oregano will work just fine and its bitterness makes it an acceptable stand-in for dried (not fresh) basil, mint or shiso. You can’t use it to generate heat, nor for that distinctive licorice flavor of fennel, nor for sweets which have their own menu of spices. But for the minimally stocked kitchen and the lazy cook, oregano goes a long way.

I have in the past gone out of my way to purchase Greek oregano (which has a lemony topnote) and Mexican oregano (which seems to be more flavorful, maybe because I buy it at Penzey’s and it’s fresher) but to hell with that. Now I just have a great big jar of McCormick’s oregano purchased at a big box store, and if I don’t get enough flavor I can shake on some more. (My jar looks like the one above, which you can buy with free shipping as an add-on item at Amazon, except mine is already half empty after a few months.)

2018 was a tough year, and 2019 is shaping up to be equally challenging. Let’s simplify where we can. Starting with oregano on everything.