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Genovese Sauce
(Salsa genovese) 2 N Chop fine a sprig of parsley and half a clove of garlic. Then mix with some capers soaked in vinegar, one anchovy, one hard yolk of egg, three pitless olives, a crumb of bread as big as an egg, soaked in vinegar. Grind all these ingredients, rub through a sieve and dissolve in olive oil, dosing right by tasting. 59
A cold pounded sauce in the salsa verde family, built on the balance of vinegar, salt and oil rather than on any fixed measurement. The instruction that matters most is the last one: the oil goes in gradually, by taste, until the paste loosens into a spoonable sauce.
- "A crumb of bread as big as an egg"Roughly half an ounce to an ounce of the soft interior of a loaf, about a quarter cup. Soak it in vinegar, then squeeze it out firmly; a sodden crumb will make the sauce sour and slack.
- The anchovyProbably a salt-packed anchovy, the usual form in this period; rinse and fillet it, or use two oil-packed fillets, which are smaller and milder than the whole salted fish.
- Capers in vinegarThe recipe calls for capers soaked in vinegar. Brined capers from a jar are already acid; drain and use them as they are, about a tablespoon.
- Grinding and sievingA mortar gives the best texture, but a small food processor works. The sieving step catches caper stems, olive skin and coarse crumb, and may be unnecessary if the paste is already smooth.
- Oil quantityExpect to work in roughly 1/3 to 1/2 cup of olive oil, added in a thin stream while stirring, until the sauce falls thickly from a spoon.
- SeasoningNo salt is listed because the anchovy, capers and olives supply it. Taste before adding any, and correct with vinegar rather than salt if it tastes flat.
- Yield and servingMakes about 3/4 cup, enough for four. Serve cool, not chilled, with boiled or cold meats, poached fish, or hard-cooked eggs. It keeps two or three days refrigerated; stir before serving.
The Italian Cook Book, compiled by Maria Gentile and published in New York in 1919, was aimed at American households then encountering Italian cooking through immigrant kitchens, and its sauce chapter includes a number of the cold pounded condiments that were standard on Italian tables alongside cooked sauces. This salsa genovese belongs to the broad salsa verde family: parsley, garlic, anchovy, capers, olives and a vinegar-soaked bread crumb, worked to a paste in a mortar and let down with oil. It should not be confused with the Neapolitan genovese, a long-cooked onion and beef ragù that carries the same city's name for reasons still argued over. Bread as a thickener here is characteristic of the older Italian sauces, which used a soaked crumb where later cooks are often said to have reached for egg or more oil, and the closing direction to dose the oil by tasting is the whole method in miniature.