Salsa verde
Italian salsa verde has nothing to do with the Mexican one — it is a thick herb sauce chopped with a knife, not blended. A blender reduces the parsley to a pulp, and olive oil beaten in it can turn bitter; the sauce ends up uniformly green and smooth. Here you want the opposite: visible pieces and clear texture.
Your own work in that: 0 min.
- Soaking the bread 10 min
- Chopping the herbs 15 min
- Combining 5 min
- Resting 20 min
Step by step
0 / 5 doneSoak the bread in vinegar
Cover the bread crumb with vinegar and leave 10 minutes, then squeeze it hard. The bread is not a filler — it binds the oil and vinegar and stops the sauce splitting straight away on the plate.
Ingredients: 2 bunches parsley · 3 tbsp capers · 6 pcs anchovies · 2 cloves garlic · 1 pcs bread · 3 tbsp wine vinegar
Squeezed crumb stabilises the whole emulsion.Chop everything together
Pile the parsley, capers, anchovies and garlic onto a large board and chop them together with a big knife for 5–8 minutes, gathering the mixture back into the middle. Chopped together, the ingredients form an even, cohesive mass in which the flavours blend at once.
Ingredients: 2 bunches parsley · 3 tbsp capers · 6 pcs anchovies · 2 cloves garlic · 1 pcs bread · 3 tbsp wine vinegar
TipCut away the thicker parsley stalks — they are fibrous and will not chop evenly with the leaves.
One board, one knife — never a blender.Combine with olive oil
Tip the chopped mixture into a bowl, add the squeezed bread and mustard, then pour in the oil slowly, stirring with a fork. The sauce should be thick and barely pourable, with clearly visible pieces. If using the egg, chop it finely and stir it in at the end.
Ingredients: 200 ml olive oil · 1 tsp mustard · ½ pcs lemon · ½ tsp pepper · 1 pcs egg
Season carefully
Add lemon juice and pepper. You probably will not need salt — capers and anchovies are already very salty. Taste before adding any and only then decide.
Ingredients: 200 ml olive oil · 1 tsp mustard · ½ pcs lemon · ½ tsp pepper · 1 pcs egg
Rest for twenty minutes
Leave the sauce for 20 minutes at room temperature. The bread absorbs the oil, the garlic's bite softens and the flavours marry. Freshly mixed salsa verde tastes raw and separates.
Ingredients: 200 ml olive oil · 1 tsp mustard · ½ pcs lemon · ½ tsp pepper · 1 pcs egg
Before you start
Storage
In a jar under a layer of oil it keeps up to 4 days in the fridge (with egg, up to 2 days). The colour dulls but the flavour deepens.
What to serve it with
With boiled beef, roast fish, boiled potatoes and hard-boiled eggs. It is the classic sauce for Italian bollito misto.
Without anchovies
Swap them for another spoonful of capers and half a teaspoon of salt. You lose the umami but the sauce stays vegetarian and still assertive.