Salsa Agresto
Recipe by Maggie Beer
This almond sauce is wonderful with all manner of grilled things. I even added it to the remains of panzanella and used the mixture to stuff artichokes and cardoons before baking them for a couple of hours in a moderate oven until meltingly tender. In another bid not to waste anything, one night the salsa was tossed into pumpkin risotto with leftover chicken and eggplant. The risotto was wonderful and looked great, speckled with rich orange and black. Demonstrated at the 2011 Melbourne Food and Wine Festival.
Ingredients
- 1 cup almonds
- 1 cup walnuts
- 2 cloves garlic
- 2 ¾ cups flat-leaf parsley
- ½ cup basil
- 1½ tsp sea salt
- 6 grinds black pepper
- ¾ cup extra virgin olive oil
- ¾ cup verjuice
Method
- Preheat the oven to 220˚C. Roast the almonds and walnuts separately on baking trays for about 5 minutes, shaking the trays to prevent the nuts from burning. Rub the walnuts in a clean tea towel to remove the bitter skins, if they are not fresh season’s. Allow to cool.
- Blend the nuts, garlic, herbs and seasonings with a little of the olive oil in a food processor to make a fine paste. Blend in the balance of the olive oil, then add the verjuice. The consistency should be perfect for spreading. If required, thin with more verjuice.
- Note: Make salsa agresto within half an hour of serving as it oxidises quickly.
Notes & Tips
