Food is joy, ritual, conviviality, necessary, seasonal.
In Italy, it is regional, often even parochial.
Not to mention that to understand the origins and evolution of many recipes, one must look beyond current Italian administrative boundaries to a distant past when the regions as we know them today did not exist (the regional authority is the youngest in Italy, dating back to 1971).
And then, of course, there is the family heritage. Every Italian family is a repository of recipes, methods, and stories. Woe betide anyone who questions them.
For example, my family’s recipe is very similar to Artusi’s, which is, in fact, the version with little or no garlic, typical of Bologna and the surrounding area. Artusi included the recipe (no. 119) in the first edition of his book (1891) La scienza in cucina e L’arte di mangiar bene (Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well).
Sentimental geography of Italian sauces
There is tomato sauce. It originates in Spain, but its fame today is primarily due 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 global 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, featuring a sauce 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 also want to mention the raspberry sauce, which is used for both 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 seasonal pasta. Romagna parsley sauce is also used to season pasta, but instead of anchovies, garlic is used (not always, as 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 can find in Venice as well. 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 prevalent in regions where boiled meat is a traditional 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, the amount of garlic is minimal. Sometimes, there is no garlic like in my version. In contrast, find garlic in the red but not spicy sauce of Bologna, another city’s specialty.
Returning to the traditional Bolognese salsa verde, it’s worth noting that every family has its own 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 a hard-boiled egg, but it is a modern adaptation of the original.
The green sauce of the Bolognese tradition
There is little garlic and no pickle, which, once upon a time, were not ingredients you would have found in a pantry in 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 I did too.
The ingredients are carefully chopped with a knife: parsley, capers, anchovies, and pickled small Padron peppers in wine vinegar. Many people today replace green peppers with gherkins. I invite you to use peppers in wine vinegar to taste the authentic 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. However, it’s so good, versatile, and quick to make that it’s a shame to wait until the boil to prepare 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 streghe di Bologna, a sort of crackers (HERE find the recipe); to stuff ham piadina or sandwiches.
Buona cucina, Monica
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.
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 from Bologna
Ingredients
- 20 g of fresh parsley
- 20 g of pickled capers
- 40 g mild green peppers in wine vinegar (alternatively, add some gherkins in vinegar)
- 10 g of anchovy fillets (2 fillets)
- 20 ml of filtered lemon juice
- 150 ml of olive oil 120 to 150 ml olive oil, depending on your taste, but salsa verde needs a lot of oil
- garlic, optional (half a clove or less, finely chopped and mixed with the other ingredients)
Instructions
- Wash and dry the parsley. Then remove the stems.
- Rinse the capers under running water.
- Finely chop all the ingredients with a knife, setting aside only the liquids.
- In a small saucepan, mix the chopped ingredients with lemon juice and olive oil.
- Bring to a boil while stirring, then immediately turn off the heat. Allow to cool before using.
- Store in the refrigerator for 3 days.
