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Pistachio Sauce
2 ozs. (2 heaping tablespoonfuls) chopped pistachio nuts 1 tablespoonful cornstarch 1 gill (1/2 cup) water I oz. (I heaping tablespoonful) sugar 1 tablespoonful cream 1 wineglassful Marsala wine 1/4 teaspoonful pistachio extract Blanch the pistachio nuts, then pound them till smooth. Mix the cornstarch smoothly with the water in a fireproof dish, add the pistachio nuts, and let them boil, keeping them well stirred. Add the sugar, cream, Marsala wine, and pistachio extract.
Strain the sauce and it is ready.
A dessert sauce, thickened with cornstarch and finished with fortified wine — meant for puddings, ices or a plain steamed sponge. The measures are Edwardian and a couple need translating before you start.
- A gill and a wineglassfulA gill is half a cup (4 fl oz), as the recipe itself notes. A wineglassful in period cookbooks means roughly 2 fl oz, or a quarter cup — not a modern stemmed glass of 6 oz. Pour that much Marsala and no more, or the sauce will taste of nothing else.
- "Fireproof dish" means a saucepan"Fireproof dish" means a pan that takes direct heat -- the recipe brings the mixture to a boil in it, so this is not a baking dish. Use a small heavy saucepan; the cornstarch will catch in anything thin.
- Boil the starch, brieflyCornstarch has to reach a full boil to thicken and to lose its raw taste, but one minute of bubbling is enough. Prolonged boiling, especially once the acidic wine is in, breaks the gel down and the sauce thins again.
- Wine and cream go in off the heatThe recipe adds them after boiling for good reason. Returning the pan to a hard boil after the cream is in risks curdling, and the Marsala's aroma is largely alcohol-borne and will simply leave.
- Blanching and poundingCover the shelled nuts with boiling water for a minute and slip off the skins — this is what keeps the sauce green rather than grey-brown. A small food processor or spice grinder replaces the mortar; grind with a spoonful of the sugar to stop it turning to paste.
- MarsalaUse a sweet Marsala (dolce) for a dessert sauce. Dry Marsala, the kind sold for veal, will make it taste savoury against only one tablespoon of sugar.
- Pistachio extractSold in the period as a flavouring, it is harder to find now, and some commercial versions are almond-based with added colouring. The sauce works without it; the pounded nuts carry the flavour, though the colour will be paler.
- Straining and yieldStraining removes the nut solids and leaves a smooth, thin pouring sauce — press the pulp firmly to get the flavour out. Expect about three-quarters of a cup, enough for four servings.
Cookbooks devoted to casserole cookery appeared in English and American kitchens around the turn of the twentieth century, when glazed fireproof earthenware and enamelled iron became more affordable for ordinary households; at that date the word still tended to mean the pot rather than the dish cooked in it. A sweet sauce like this one may sit in such a book because the same vessel that braised the meat could also carry a sauce to the table. The pistachio was a Mediterranean import and a relative luxury, and its pale green was prized in confectionery long before it became a standard ice-cream flavour. Marsala, a fortified Sicilian wine, is generally traced to English merchants working at Marsala in the late eighteenth century, and was widely available in Britain and America by 1900.