Salsa Verd
Original:
Si vols fer salsa vcrt ages fulla dc juyvert, e lo tendre lava 1 e esuga 1 al sol o sens sol, e puyca 1 molt ab canyella e gingebre, e clavells, pebre e avellanes torrades. Amesura ho de cascu he tasta bo, e, si veus quc la una cosa sap mes que 1 altra, tempra ho per egual e destenpra ho ab vinagre, e lo vinagre prenga hi mes, e pot hi hom metra pa torrat banyat ab vinagre ; mit hi me1 o sucre a hom delicat ho ha malalt.
Si vols fer salsa vcrt ages fulla dc juyvert, e lo tendre lava 1 e esuga 1 al sol o sens sol, e puyca 1 molt ab canyella e gingebre, e clavells, pebre e avellanes torrades. Amesura ho de cascu he tasta bo, e, si veus quc la una cosa sap mes que 1 altra, tempra ho per egual e destenpra ho ab vinagre, e lo vinagre prenga hi mes, e pot hi hom metra pa torrat banyat ab vinagre ; mit hi me1 o sucre a hom delicat ho ha malalt.
[El Llibre de Sent Sovi, XX, c.1325]
Translation:
If you want
to make green sauce, take parsley leaves, and wash the tender parts, and dry
them in the sun, or without sun. Grind
them well with cinnamon and ginger and cloves, pepper and toasted
hazelnuts. Put in a good measure of each
ingredient and taste it, and if you see one thing is more evident than another,
balance it to be equal. And mix it with
vinegar, so that the vinegar is more evident.
And one can put in bread, toasted and soaked in vinegar. Put in honey or sugar for a delicate or sick
person.
[El Llibre de Sent Sovi/The Book of
Sent Sovi, XX, c1325, Trans: Robin Vogelzang, 2008]
Ingredients:
Parsley
Cinnamon
Ginger
Cloves
Pepper (Long
Pepper)
Hazelnuts
Vinegar
(Apple Cider Vinegar)
Bread
Honey
Redaction:
Toast
Hazelnuts and Bread. Soak Toasted Bread
in Vinegar. Grind Parsley with Cinnamon,
Ginger, Cloves, and Pepper. Add the
Toasted Hazelnuts. Add Toasted Bread and
more Vinegar until the texture is smooth and the Sauce is tangy. If the Sauce is too tangy, add Honey or Sugar
to taste.
Notes:
Green sauce: mixture made with parsley and other
aromatic herbs, spices and hazelnuts, all well ground and diluted with vinegar;
it was also known by the name of jurvert,
as we find in the Llibre de potages,
167.
[El Llibre de Sent Sovi/The Book of Sent Sovi, XX, c1325, Trans: Robin
Vogelzang, 2008]
Normally, this recipe would have been prepared with a Mortar and
Pestle. Since I do not have a Mortar and
Pestle large enough for this task, I had Senyor Oster grind the ingredients for
me. The recipe comments to put in honey or sugar for a delicate or sick
person. We found the initial recipe to
be more tangy from the Vinegar than we liked and added Honey. This brought the Sauce to a nice balance.
Bibliography:
“Salsa Verd.”
In El Llibre de Sent Sovi / The Book of Sent Sovi: Medieval Recipes from
Catalonia, edited by Joan Santanach, translated by Robin Vogelzang, 82-3. Barcelona: Barcino-Tamesis, (c.1325) 2008.
