Garlic sauce like the pizzeria's: thick, yogurt-based, eight minutes' work
Thick Greek yogurt with a little mayonnaise, garlic crushed to a paste with salt, lemon and dill. Garlic crushed rather than pressed disperses evenly and leaves no sharp bites. Half an hour in the fridge is all it takes for the flavour to spread. For the barbecue, pizza, baked potatoes and chips.
Your own work in that: 8 min.
- Mixing 8 min
- Resting 30 min
Step by step
0 / 3 doneCrush the garlic to a paste
Peel the cloves, sprinkle with a pinch of coarse salt and crush them with the flat of a knife on a board, dragging the blade over the pulp until it turns into a smooth paste. The salt works as an abrasive here.
Ingredients: 300 g thick Greek yogurt · 3 tbsp mayonnaise · 4 cloves garlic · ½ pcs lemon, juice · ½ bunch dill · 1 tsp mustard · ½ tsp salt · ½ tsp black pepper · 1 tbsp olive oil
TipA press often leaves larger bits and fibres that give the odd fiercely sharp mouthful. A paste worked with salt spreads the garlic evenly through the whole bowl.
Salt as an abrasive, the flat of the knifeMix
Stir the yogurt with the mayonnaise, garlic paste, mustard, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Stir with a spoon, not a whisk: aerated yogurt goes thin. Fold in the chopped dill and the olive oil.
A spoon, not a whisk; dill lastChill for half an hour
Cover and refrigerate 30 minutes. The garlic needs that time to give its flavour to the whole sauce; freshly made it is sharp in spots and bland around them. Taste after chilling and adjust the salt.
TipThe sauce is best on the day it is made and the next. By the third day the garlic dominates and turns bitter, and the yogurt weeps.
Half an hour and it is ready
Before you start
Thicker, for dipping
Strain the yogurt for an hour in a muslin-lined sieve. It loses some of its whey and thickens into a dip for raw vegetables.
Without mayonnaise
Yogurt alone plus a spoon of olive oil: lighter and sharper, closer to tzatziki. Add half a teaspoon of sugar to balance it.
Wild garlic
In spring, a handful of chopped wild garlic instead of the cloves: milder, green, seasonal. The leaves are around roughly from March to May; in Poland wild-growing wild garlic is protected, so buy cultivated leaves.