Salsa verde (Green sauce)
- Preparation time: 15 minutes.
- Cooking time: 7 minutes.
- Standing time: 30 minutes.
- One egg.
- A good handful of fresh parsley.
- 300g bread.
- Teaspoon of wine vinegar.
- 5 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil.
- Salt.
- Optional: one anchovy fillet-one garlic clove-black pepper.
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Boil the egg for seven minutes, leave it to cool and remove the shell. Mash it with a fork in a small bowl, working it until quite smooth and creamy. Remove the stems from the parsley and chop the leaves finely; add to the mashed egg: Soak the bread, with the crusts removed, to soften it (use unsalte bread, a day or two old), squeeze the water out, crumble it finely and add to the other ingredients.
Sprinkle with the oil and vinegar and beat the mixture together thoroughly, adding a pinch of salt. Leave in a cool place or in the fridge for at least 30 minutes and pour into a sauce boat before serving. This sauce is the classic accompaniment for boiled meats and several versions of it exist.
The most frequent variation is simply with a dash of pepper; those who prefer a stronger flavour can also add a chopped or grated clove of garlic to the mixture, while "extremists" like an anchovy fillet, mashed together with the egg.
This recipe has been known and handed down in various forms for centuries. Bartolomeo Sacchi wrote of it"...this sauce has little nutritional value, it inflames the stomach and the liver and it is difficult to digest. However, it has the merit of loosening the bowel and stimulating the appetite".
