Food is joy, it is ritual, it is convivial, it is a necessity, and it is seasonal.
In Italy, it is also regional, often even local.
Not forgetting to know the history of many Italian recipes, you have to look beyond the current administrative boundaries. And then, of course, you cannot ignore the family heritage. Every Italian family is a repository of recipes, procedures, and stories. Never question them.
Artusi included the recipe for salsa verde already in the first edition (1891) of his collection La scienza in cucina e L’arte di mangiar bene, recipe No. 119.
My family’s recipe is very similar to Artusi’s.
Sentimental geography of Italian sauces
There is tomato sauce. It originates in Spain, but if it is today so famous in the world, it is thanks to the Italians. Every Italian family cooks its own passata with ingredients and cooking times differing depending on the family recipe. I like to make tomato sauce with Artusi’s quick recipe (HERE).
There are international sauces, such as béchamel and hollandaise. And local ones that have won international fame, such as pesto Genovese or ragù a la Bolognese (HERE, find my family recipe).
Then there are regional sauces and local variations.
Ligurian sauces are full of fragrance: there is the one with walnuts and a Genoese sauce for fish. Pesto, again Genovese style, wants Ligurian basil; never use Greek basil.
In Trapani, pesto is, of course, Trapanese style, made with mint.
In Trentino, pesto does not exist. Instead, you will find horseradish sauce, onion sauce (baked and then treated), and sweet and sour sauce made from rabbit liver. I have also to mention raspberry sauce used for sweet and savory preparations.
In Italy, anchovy is a favorite ingredient in sauces.
You can find it in Bari’s Sangiovannino sauce, a red sauce with even parsley. It is a local specialty for season pasta. Romagna parsley sauce is also used to season pasta, but instead of anchovies, there is garlic (not always, it depends on the family).
The tastiness of anchovies is the protagonist in the Friulian sauce that takes its name from fish. The same sauce you find in Venice too. In Friuli, there is also mustard sauce and a spicy lemon sauce.
Siena, Tuscany, smells of its tarragon sauce
In Calabria, the sauce is spicy. The ingredients of Calabrian salsa are red chili peppers, tomato, basil, onion, lard, and prosciutto.
Tradura sauce, typical of Viterbo, Lazio, has medieval origins and is prepared by mixing eggs, ginger, saffron, bay leaves, Pecorino cheese, and honey. This sauce is perfect with roasted meats, no pasta, or even boiled meats.
St. Bernard’s sauce takes us to Sicily and is part of the sweet and sour sauces. Its ingredients include breadcrumbs, toasted and chopped almonds, anchovies (again!), sugar, bitter cocoa, water, and vinegar.
Parma sauce is also sweet and sour and accompanies boiled meats.
It is a red sauce made of parsley, garlic, vinegar, and sugar.
The green sauce is widespread in the regions where boiled meat is a typical dish.
There are two best-known versions, Piedmontese and Bolognese.
The former differs from the latter in the use of eggs, breadcrumbs, and amount of garlic. The Bolognese one is a tribute to the green parsley. In this preparation, parsley shouldn’t be covered by other strong-tasting ingredients. For this reason, in the Bolognese version, which is very similar to the Artusi recipe, there is little garlic amount. In contrast, find garlic in the red but not spicy sauce of Bologna, another city’s specialty.
Going back to the traditional Bolognese salsa verde, you should know that every family has its recipe. Many add a chopped hard-boiled egg, but this version combines Bolognese and Piedmontese traditions. In her notes, grandma left a recipe for salsa verde with hard-boiled egg, but it is a modern recipe.
The green sauce of the Bolognese tradition
There is little garlic and no pickle, which, once upon a time, was not an ingredient you would have found in a pantry of Bologna or Romagna (in Romagna, the recipe is the same as in Bologna).
The original salsa verde was made with seed oil. Nonna used to make it with olive oil, and me too.
The ingredients are patiently chopped with a knife: parsley, capers, anchovies, pickled little Padron peppers in wine vinegar. Many people today replace green peppers with gherkins. May I invite you to use peppers in wine vinegar to taste the true flavor of the sauce?
The ingredients are mixed with olive oil and lemon juice before cooking for a few minutes.
The salsa verde is ready. Ready to accompany winter and summer boiled meats. But it’s so good and versatile, and quick to make, that it’s a shame to wait until the boil to make it.
Use the green sauce to dress a boiled potato or tomato salad or accompany fish, white or grilled, as well as steak. Or to spread on bread and witches (HERE find the recipe); to stuff ham piadina or sandwiches.
The green sauce with hard boiled egg
Grandma used to mix a package of tuna fish with two hard-boiled eggs, two green and pink tomatoes, and a pinch of parsley. She would go by eye. A little parsley might correspond to about 3-4 g of leaves. Chop the ingredients with a knife, add olive oil and serve.
About the red sauce, a forgotten recipe of Bolognese tradition, I will tell you soon.
Buona cucina, Monica
Cook with me
Parsley tomato sauce, once widespread in Romagna and also find in Artusi’s book, is a masterpiece of peasant cooking. With just two ingredients, you make a sauce that deserves a taste (HERE you can find the recipe).
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Green sauce of Bologna recipe
serves 4
List of the Ingredients
parsley leaves, 10 g
pickled capers, 20 g
pickled peppers in wine vinegar, 3 little
anchovy fillets, 2
strained juice of half a lemon
olive oil to taste (a generous amount)
Note: Peppers for making salsa verde are not spicy
Directions
Rinse the capers under running water and wash the parsley, using only the leaves and removing the stems.
Finely chop all the ingredients on a cutting board.
Transfer to a saucepan with lemon juice and a generous quantity of olive oil.
Stir, and bring to a boil. Turn off, let cool, and serve.
