Salsa Verde
Italian green sauce — parsley, capers, anchovy and lemon
The Italian green sauce, not the Mexican one: parsley, capers, anchovy and garlic chopped by hand and loosened with olive oil. Sharp, salty and green, and it goes with boiled beef, grilled fish, roast lamb and almost everything else.
Chop it by hand. A processor turns it to a paste and it loses all its texture.
Ingredients
- 2 cups flat-leaf parsley leaves, packed
- 2 tablespoons capers, rinsed
- 4 anchovy fillets
- 1 garlic clove
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
- 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
- 2/3 cup olive oil
- 1 tablespoon chopped mint (optional)
- Black pepper
Instructions
- Chop the parsley, capers, anchovies and garlic together on a board until fine but still distinguishable — not a paste.
- Scrape into a bowl and stir in the mustard and vinegar.
- Add the olive oil in a stream, stirring, until it is loose and spoonable.
- Stir in the mint if using. Season with black pepper — it will not need salt, between the capers and the anchovies.
- Let it stand 30 minutes before serving.
Notes
- Better after an hour, still good the next day, though the parsley dulls.
- A hard-boiled yolk mashed in makes it richer and closer to a gribiche.