salsa verde
Do you still have an abundance of herbs? Me too. Last week we were enjoying PESTO made from fresh herbs and garlic plus extra virgin olive oil. This week I’m making SALSA VERDE. You’ll need flat leaf parsley, mint, and basil plus capers, anchovies, garlic, Dijon mustard, lemon juice and extra virgin olive oil. You’ll end up with a versatile, delicious, classic sauce.
Gather some basil, mint and parsley, add garlic, extra virgin olive oil, some capers, a lemon and some anchovies. (Don’t worry if you don’t like anchovies, the flavour is not strong once they have been amalgamated with the other ingredients.) I used curly parsley as that is what I had but I prefer flat leaf parsley for this sauce.
To make salsa verde, called green sauce by the English and sauce verte au pain ( because it was originally a bread sauce) by the French, you need 4 tbspn flat leaf parsley, 1 tbspn chopped mint, 2 tbspn chopped basil, 2 tbspn chopped capers, 2 drained anchovies, 1 peeled garlic clove, 1 tbspn Dijon mustard, juice of half a lemon and 1oo ml extra virgin olive oil. Also 25ml extra virgin olive oil if you plan on keeping it for a few days.
I mix the first six ingredients in a food processor until they’re roughly chopped then add the rest and mix until combined.
Purists and sensible people, who obviously refrain from eating all their salsa verde in a few days, store it in the fridge in a jar with a slick of olive oil (the extra olive oil in the ingredients list) We never keep it very long!
I have both pesto and sasla verde in the fridge so I planned a ‘make your own’ pasta dinner for tonight. I prefer both served close to room temperature so I put them out to warm an little. I cooked the pasta while I was setting a selection of tomato salsa, salsa verde, pesto, leftover bolognese sauce plus mozzarella di bufala and sheeps pecorino. Quick and easy and used up things I already had in the fridge.
I have used a lot of herbs from the garden recently as they are near the end of their season. Both the parsley and basil are going to seed, the mint needed tidying up, the spring onions needed sorting out and the chives are going to seed, too. Normally I snip the flowers off the basil to promote a longer picking season, but they’re getting a bit leggy, so I let the flowers dry out then rub them between my hands. Tiny black seeds fall out. It’s hard to really separate the tiny seeds from the broken up bits of dried flowers so I remove what I can and leave the rest. The seeds are put in an envelope, labeled and replanted later in the year. I keep the seeds I collect in recycled envelopes or paper bags in the garage where it is dry and cool.
the problem with junk food
A recent article on ABC online (here) outlines the problems with junk food consumption. It defines junk food as a broad range of ready to eat products, such as packaged baked goods, chips, lollies, instant noodles, some ready meals, soft drinks, sweetened cereals and packaged snacks. Junk food is food that has undergone significant chemical modification to enhance texture, taste, appearance and longevity.
Image Pixabay
Recently, junk foods were reviewed by Australian and international institutions. They considered 45 previous studies published during the last three years. Nearly 10 million participants were monitored in these studies. Analyzing this data revealed strong evidence that consuming ultra processed food can result in 32 different health problems. Junk food consumers are at a higher risk of both physical and mental poor health and death.
Image Pixabay
The risks listed from consuming junk food included cancer, major heart and lung conditions, mental health disorders and early death. The article doesn’t include specific cause and effect data, but the advice continues to recommend we avoid these foods. We all knew ultra processed foods aren’t good for us. There is probably a hint in the name ‘junk food.’