It is not very often that we get to trace the history of a recipe through no less than seven centuries, but when we do, it can tell us interesting things about changing tastes. Here you can find a few historical recipes of salsa verde, or green sauce, a condiment from Italian cuisine that is normally used for boiled or roast meats (but works just as well on fish, eggs, or anything else you fancy trying). We start with a fourteenth century medieval recipe of Salsa virida, followed by two versions from eighteenth and nineteenth-century giants of Italian cookery: Francesco Leonardi and Pellegrino Artusi. Which version would you make?
Liber De Coquina, f. 181v
For green sauce take parsley with mint with their stems, cardamom, nutmeg, pepper, cloves, ginger, grind it all well in a mortar and then rub some breadcrumbs in, and if you wish, you can put garlic and blend it with good vinegar.
Ad salsam viridem accipe petrosillum cum menta fusticellos gardamomum nucem muscatum piper gariofilum zinziber terre omnia in mortario fortiter et tum eis tere parum de mica panis et si vis potes ponere allea et distempera cum bono aceto.
Francesco Leonardi, L’Apicio moderno, Vol. I (1790), p. 81-2:
Fresh green sauce
In a mortar, grind a handful of parsley well dried [i.e., washed and dried], add a clove of garlic, breadcrumbs soaked in vinegar, sugar to balance, a bit of salt and fine pepper, dilute it with the necessary amount of vinegar, pass it through a sieve so it’s bright green, not too sweet, not too sour, and quite well bound together.
Salsa verde fredda
Pestate nel mortajo un pugno di petrosemolo bene asciugato, aggiungeteci una punta d’aglio mollica di pane inzuppata nell’aceto zucchero a proporzione, poco sale, e pepe fino, stemperatela con aceto la quantità necessaria, passatela al setaccio che sia ben verde, nè troppo dolce, nè troppo acida, e alquanto legata.
Pellegrino Artusi, La scienza in cucina e l’arte di mangiar bene, recipe no. 119:
To make salsa verde, chop capers (the vinegar squeezed out of them), anchovy, little onion and very little garlic all together with a mincing-knife. Mince the mixture with the blade of a knife to make it very fine and put it in a gravy boat. Add a good amount of parsley, chopped with a few leaves of basil, and loosen it all with fine oil and lemon juice. This sauce lends itself to boiled chickens or fried fish and to hard-boiled or poached eggs.
If you don’t have capers, you can use chilli peppers instead.
Per fare la salsa verde, tritate tutto insieme colla lunetta, capperi spremuti dall’aceto, un’acciuga, poca cipolla e pochissimo aglio. Stiacciate il composto colla lama di un coltello per renderlo fine e ponetelo in una salsiera. Aggiungete una buona dose di prezzemolo, tritato con qualche foglia di basilico, e sciogliete il tutto, con olio fine e agro di limone. Questa salsa si presta bene coi lessi di pollo o di pesce freddi, e colle uova sode o affogate.
Mancando i capperi, possono servire i peperoni.
You can find another modern version of salsa verde from the excellent food site Giallo Zafferano (both in English and Italian) which, interestingly, contains quite a few elements from the historical recipes above plus some new additions.
Buon appetito!
