Salmoriglio

No, that is not a form of bacteria. It is a very easy and tasty sauce that goes incredibly well with fish. I ran across it in one of the cookbooks by the goddess of Italian cooking, Marcella Hazan. The recipe was for grilled swordfish with this sauce and I’ve used it that way a number of times. She also states that it’s good on lots of other kinds of fish so I’m going to try some of those too. It’s Sicilian in origin and definitely qualifies as an item on the “cucina pigra” (lazy cooking) list.

The ingredients are simple enough: olive oil (extra virgin of course), lemon juice, salt and oregano. I use less salt that she does but I’m giving the ingredient list from her cookbook “More Classical Italian Cooking”. As an aside, this cookbook as well as her first one “Classical Italian Cooking” into a single updated volume “Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking”. I highly recommend it.

Ingredients: enough for 4 people

1 tablespoon salt (I halve that)

2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

1 teaspoon oregano (she doesn’t specify but I use fresh and chop it finely)

¼ cup olive oil

freshly ground pepper

Put the salt and lemon juice into a bowl (I use a one cup measuring cup for convenience) and beat with a fork or small whisk until the salt is dissolved. Add the oregano and mix it in with a few turns of the fork. Trickle in the olive oil while beating with whatever instrument (fork or whisk) that you have chosen. Add a few grinding of pepper and mix a bit to distribute the pepper. That’s it. The recipe scales well so even if I am just cooking for myself I can make a small amount since it really doesn’t keep since the lemon juice will lose it’s punch. Also note that the ingredients really don’t need to be too exact for this too all work out. It should be salty and lemony and after it’s mixed together will have a slightly thick consistency. I like some of Marcella’s writing and here is how she sums up the sauce…

 “There can be no simpler way to sauce a fish than with this clear silken wash, wherein are dissolved the cool zest of lemon and oregano’s sultry fragrance. There is certainly non more enticing to the nose or palate.”

I’ve now tried it with other fish as well and found it just as wonderful. One night the fridge was a bit bare so I steamed some broccoli and red bell pepper and put it over rice with some salmoriglio. It was fantastic. Try it soon and let me know if you like it.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 5th, 2012 at 10:05 am and is filed under Food. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.