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.

[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
Sugar

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.

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