Salsa Verde (not the kind with tomatillos)

As part of sauces week for the Back to Basics series, I decided to try my hand at salsa verde. Since I grew up around Mexican food, I immediately thought it would be the tomatillo version. Nope. This is Italian, and is one of Alice Waters’ four essential sauces.

Salsa Verde

Source: The Art of Simple Food

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup parsley leaves, chopped
• zest of 1 lemon (I didn’t have a real lemon so I added a splash of lemon juice at the end)
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 Tablespoon capers, rinsed, drained, and coarsely chopped
• 1/2 tsp salt
• fresh ground black pepper to taste
• 1/2 C olive oil

Mix well in a small bowl, taste for salt, and let sit for awhile to develop the flavors.

The Verdict: I had my doubts. I know this is excellent on fish, but DH was making steaks. So I tried it on the steaks and to both of our surprise, it was awesome! I have seen other recipes that call for soaking the capers, but I rather liked the vinegary-ness that they imparted to the sauce. You can also use other herbs, but the parsley was nice and fresh. In the winter, little touches like this make me smile. I can see why Alice Waters considers this to be one of the sauces to master. It went together very quickly, yet added SO much to the steak.