Salsa Verde

The piquant green sauce of Italy: a great quantity of flat-leaf parsley pounded or chopped with anchovy, capers, garlic, and a little soaked bread, loosened with good olive oil and sharpened with vinegar, the classic partner to boiled meats, fish, and vegetables

Origin: Northern Italy

From the journey of Parsley.

Italian salsa verde, 'green sauce', is one of the great condiments of the Italian table, a punchy, herby, salty-sour sauce built on a generous mass of flat-leaf parsley. To the parsley are added anchovy for savoury depth, capers and vinegar for sharpness, garlic for bite, and sometimes a little bread soaked in vinegar to bind and soften it, the whole loosened to a spoonable rubble with good olive oil. Its traditional home is the bollito misto, the great northern Italian platter of boiled meats, whose mild richness it cuts and enlivens, but it is just as good with poached or grilled fish, with boiled or roasted vegetables, or simply on bread. It is the Italian cousin of the French sauce verte and the salsa verde of the wider Mediterranean, and parsley is unmistakably its base and its soul.

Ingredients

  • 2 large bunches flat-leaf parsley, leaves picked (about 60g)
  • 6 anchovy fillets in oil
  • 2 tbsp capers, rinsed
  • 1 clove garlic
  • 1 slice white bread, crusts removed, soaked in 1 tbsp red wine vinegar
  • 1 tsp Dijon mustard (optional)
  • 120 ml extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 tbsp red wine vinegar, plus more to taste

Method

  1. Finely chop the parsley leaves, anchovies, capers, and garlic together on a board, or pulse briefly in a food processor, until you have a coarse green rubble (not a smooth purée).
  2. Squeeze the vinegar-soaked bread, tear it small, and mash it into the herb mixture with the mustard if using.
  3. Stir in the olive oil gradually until you have a loose, spoonable sauce, then sharpen with the vinegar.
  4. Taste and adjust: more vinegar or caper brine for sharpness, more anchovy for depth, more oil to mellow. Let it sit for 15 minutes for the flavours to marry.
  5. Serve with boiled or grilled meats, poached or grilled fish, boiled potatoes, or roasted vegetables.

Notes

This is the classic northern Italian salsa verde, the partner to bollito misto; it should not be confused with the Mexican salsa verde (tomatillo and coriander) or the smooth French sauce verte. Flat-leaf parsley is the essential base; a little mint or basil can be added, but parsley should dominate. Hard-boiled egg yolk is a traditional enrichment in some regions.

The Gastrographer

The Gastrographer

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Ingredient originTrade or transit route
Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control
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