Salsa Verde: The Chopped Green Sauce for Every Plain Plate
Filed under Other Cooking Sauces
Salsa verde is a sauce made with a knife rather than a stove. A big bunch of parsley is chopped fine, two spoonfuls of capers and three anchovies are pressed into a paste with a little garlic, and good olive oil loosens it all before vinegar sharpens it at the very end. It needs no heat and no blender, and it takes fifteen minutes. The result sits between a sauce and a relish, coarse and salty, with enough oil to spoon. A spoonful over boiled potatoes, sliced steak, roast fish, white beans or a tin of good tuna makes a plain plate taste finished. Three jars do most of the work, anchovies, capers and olive oil, and what they work on is a bunch of herbs that costs almost nothing.
Two things matter in the method. The first is the order of chopping. Garlic, anchovy and capers are worked to a paste first, and the herbs are chopped separately while completely dry, which keeps them in small green flecks instead of a dark mash. The second is the vinegar. It goes in last, a little at a time, because it decides whether the sauce tastes bright or harsh, and it can only be judged once everything else is in the bowl.
Ingredients
About 1 cup (240 ml), enough for six as a sauce. Doubles cleanly.
- 1 large bunch flat-leaf parsley, about 60 g (2 oz) leaves and tender stems
- A small handful of mint or basil leaves, about 10 g (optional)
- 2 tablespoons capers: salt-packed and soaked, or in oil or brine and drained
- 3 anchovy fillets in olive oil, such as Les Mouettes d'Arvor (shop Les Mouettes d'Arvor)
- 1 small garlic clove
- 1 slice stale country bread, crust removed, about 20 g (optional, for a thicker sauce that holds its place on the plate)
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard (optional)
- Finely grated zest of half a lemon
- 150 ml (2/3 cup) extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar or red wine vinegar, plus more to taste
- Fine sea salt and black pepper
Method
- Ready the capers. If they are salt-packed, soak them in cold water for ten minutes, change the water once, then drain and pat dry. Capers in oil or brine only need draining.
- Soften the bread, if using. Tear it into small pieces, sprinkle with a teaspoon of the vinegar and set it aside while everything else is chopped.
- Make the paste. Chop the garlic very fine on the board with a pinch of salt. Add the anchovies and capers and keep chopping, pressing with the flat of the knife, until they form a rough paste. Scrape it into a bowl.
- Chop the herbs dry. Spin or blot the parsley and mint until completely dry. Chop them with a sharp knife in a few passes, gathering the pile and going through it again, until the pieces are small but still distinct. Stop before the board turns dark and wet.
- Combine. Add the herbs, bread, mustard and lemon zest to the bowl. Pour in the oil and stir until the sauce is loose and spoonable, with oil just pooling at the edges.
- Vinegar last, by taste. Add the vinegar a little at a time, tasting on a piece of bread or potato after each addition. Adjust with salt, pepper, more oil or more vinegar until it tastes bright and savory. Serve within a few hours, at room temperature.
Fix it by taste
| It tastes | Likely cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Harsh and sour | Too much vinegar, or all of it added at once | Stir in more oil and a little more chopped parsley; add vinegar in small amounts next time |
| Too salty | Salt-packed capers not soaked long enough, plus added salt | More parsley and oil; do not add salt until the last taste |
| Flat | Too little acid, or no lemon zest | A few more drops of vinegar and a little more zest |
| Hot and raw | Too much garlic, or garlic not chopped fine | Use less garlic next time, or chop it with salt to a near paste |
| Muddy and dark | Wet herbs, or herbs chopped to a purée or blended | Dry them completely and stop chopping while the pieces are still distinct |
| Thin and oily | Too much oil for the herbs | Add the soaked bread or more chopped herbs |
What it goes on
| Plate | How |
|---|---|
| Boiled or roast potatoes | Toss warm potatoes with a few spoonfuls so they absorb it |
| Grilled steak or lamb | Spoon over the sliced meat as it rests |
| Roast or grilled fish | Under or over the fillet, with a lemon wedge |
| Tinned tuna or sardines | Spooned over fish laid on toast or white beans |
| White beans or chickpeas | Stirred through warm, drained beans with a little extra oil |
| Eggs | Over halved soft or hard boiled eggs, or a fried egg on toast |
Notes and variations
No anchovy. Leave them out and add a few extra capers and a little more salt at the end. The sauce will be brighter and less deep. Other herbs. Parsley is the base. Mint, basil, chives, tarragon or a few celery leaves can make up a quarter of the green without taking over. By machine. A food processor works if pulsed briefly, a few seconds at a time, with the herbs going in after the paste. A blender turns it into a smooth purée, which is a different sauce. The oil is raw and makes up more than half the volume, so use one that tastes good from a spoon, per the olive oil buying guide. In Denver, nothing in salsa verde is cooked, so the recipe needs no altitude adjustment.
Keeping it. Salsa verde is raw garlic and herbs in oil, a combination that must stay cold. The National Center for Home Food Preservation says garlic-in-oil should be refrigerated at 40°F or lower and used within four days, or frozen for longer storage, and Oregon State University Extension gives the same four-day rule for pesto, an uncooked mix of herbs, garlic and oil.
