Salsa Verde with Roasted Cauliflower

Salsa Verde with Roasted Cauliflower is perfect for those who love robust flavour. With powerful ingredients like garlic, capers, herbs, & optional anchovies, this Italian cold sauce can enliven so many dishes.

In this post I give you my version of Salsa Verde & I show you how to combine it with roasted cauliflower to make a light meal. Or serve Salsa Verde with Roasted Cauliflower with pasta or grains for a heartier bowlful.

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I make Salsa Verde (literally ‘green sauce’) fairly often as I love its strong flavour. It’s also pretty versatile, being good with meat, vegetables, salads, fish, cheese, eggs and pasta.

Although some of the ingredients are never changing, it’s one of those recipes you really need to taste as you go along rather than stick to rigid quantities

As we’ll see, there are many versions of Salsa Verde. So just use my recipe as a guide, along with some of the suggested variations, and make your own lip-smacking version.

Once you’ve made the vibrant sauce, try my easy recipe for Salsa Verde with Roasted Cauliflower.

SALSA VERDE

While there are about as many variations of Salsa Verde as there are people who make it, everyone seems to agree that parsley is indispensable.

Other herbs most often included in the rich, thick sauce are basil, tarragon and mint.

In Elizabeth David‘s Italian Food, she describes Salsa Verde as ‘Oil, lemon juice, parsley, capers, garlic, salt, and pepper, all mixed together as for a vinaigrette. There should be plenty of parsley and the sauce should be rather thick. Chopped anchovy fillets are sometimes added.’

My favourite food writer is Claudia Roden and in her epic The Food of Italy, she gives a recipe for Green Sauce Emilian-Style.

The ingredients are similar to David’s except the anchovies aren’t optional, but some basil is.

She also uses white wine vinegar instead of lemon juice and includes shallot and breadcrumbs to thicken.

Roden confirms that Salsa Verde is very flexible. Her suggestions for variations include prepared mustard, tiny pickled onions or chopped gherkin.

In the same book is a Piedmont version of green sauce, Bagnet Verd to be served with a bollito misto.

I doubt Roden expects her readers to actually cook this ‘mixed boil’ of ox tongue, pig trotter or calf’s foot, brisket, chicken, veal and sausage. But it’s interesting as the accompanying sauce, as well as a selection from the ingredients we’re now familiar with, includes mint, hard-boiled egg yolk and sugar.

I’ve mentioned these recipe ingredients as, between them, I think they cover just about all the common variations of Salsa Verde you might wish to borrow for your own.

The only other thing I’ve seen in more recent recipes is tarragon. Oh, and I prefer red wine vinegar in mine.

MY SALSA VERDE

As well as differences in the ingredients used, most recipes for Salsa Verde acknowledge that you can’t be too precise with quantities.

So, you’ll usually find ‘a handful’ of this and ‘a big bunch’ of that, rather than exact measurements. The same goes for my recipe too.

You’ll also need to decide whether you want to pound the ingredients in a pestle and mortar, whizz in a processor, or take my middle route of chopping everything finely with a big knife.

I think my method results in a good meld of flavours while leaving some pleasing texture. Plus, I only have a teeny pestle and mortar anyway.

I start by chopping garlic, drained anchovy fillets (save the oil for roasting the cauliflower later), gherkins, capers, parsley, mint and basil.

These are scraped into a bowl and mixed with vinegar, black pepper, French mustard and extra virgin olive oil plus a pinch of sugar.

It’s at this point you need to start tasting and tinkering. A bit more mustard? Vinegar? Garlic? Some salt, maybe?

Only you will know when it’s just right for your taste. At that point, I think the Salsa Verde is best left for about an hour to meld the flavours further.

While that’s happening, you can get going on the cauliflower for Salsa Verde with Roasted Cauliflower.

Roasted Cauliflower

To serve two people you’ll want a whole head of a small to medium cauliflower (or half a big one), broken into bite-sized pieces.

I use the oil saved from the tin of anchovy fillets, supplemented by more olive oil, to roast the cauliflower.

I’m a big fan of roasted onion, so toss in a few wedges along with the cauliflower. For colour, I sometimes include broccoli too.

To add flavour, you’ll want to roast the vegetables until they get a nice charring but still have a little bite.

While the roasting’s going on, brown some pine nuts in a dry pan (or stick them in the oven as it’s on anyway), zest a lemon and set both aside.

Serving Salsa Verde with Roasted Cauliflower

When the vegetables are done, simply dress with as much Salsa Verde as you like, right in the roasting tin. Stir in most of the pine nuts and lemon zest as well.

If I’m serving it with pasta, then I’ll toss the cooked pasta (along with a couple of tablespoons of its cooking water) into the tin too.

To serve, divide between two bowls and sprinkle with the rest of the pine nuts and zest. Spoon over more of the Salsa Verde if you like.

Great eaten on its own, you can also serve Salsa Verde with Roasted Cauliflower over grains like bulgur wheat or rice, with or without a fresh green salad.

I think Salsa Verde’s best eaten on the day it’s made to enjoy its freshness. But it’ll be fine the next day too.

Other uses for Salsa Verde

• Serve over roasted meats: lamb or chicken is particularly good.

• Drizzle over just-cooked new potatoes
• Stir leftovers into soup
• Eat as a dip with crunchy raw veg sticks

How do you make your Salsa Verde? I’d love to hear your version & have you rate my recipe, so leave a comment below

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Salsa Verde with Roasted Cauliflower

Make a robust Italian 'green sauce' & combine it with roasted cauliflower for a bold flavoured, light meal. Leave out the anchovies for a completely plant-based dish (see Recipe Notes).

Course Main Course, Side Dish, Salad, sauce, Condiment, Light Meal

Cuisine Italian

Keyword green sauce

Prep Time 30 minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes

Total Time 55 minutes

Servings 2

Author Moorlands Eater

Ingredients

Salsa Verde

• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 large pickled gherkins
• 1 heaped tbsp capers drained, or rinsed if salted
• 30 g anchovy fillets drained of oil (weight after draining, reserve the oil)
• 1 large handful parsley tough stems removed
• 1 small handful mint leaves only
• 1 small handful basil leaves only
• freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
• 2 tsp French or Dijon mustard
• 1 pinch sugar
• 4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• salt to taste optional

For the Roasted Cauliflower

• Half a large cauliflower stems removed, florets cut into bite-sized pieces
• 2 medium onions (optional) skinned & cut into wedges
• salt & black pepper
• 1 tbsp olive oil plus reserved oil from the anchovies

To Serve

• 2 tbsp pine nuts toasted in a dry pan or baking tray
• 1 lemon, zest only

Instructions

1. Put the garlic, gherkins, capers and anchovy fillets on a board and start roughly chopping with a large knife, combining the ingredients as you go.

2. Add all the herbs and continue chopping and mixing until everything is quite fine and well combined.

   Transfer the mixture to a bowl.

3. Add a good grind of black pepper, then stir in the vinegar, mustard, sugar and olive oil to create a thick sauce.

4. Taste, then add more of any ingredient or a pinch of salt until the sauce is to your liking.

   Set aside for 1 hour for the flavours to meld.

For the Roasted Cauliflower

1. Preheat the oven to 220C / 200C Fan / Gas 6.

2. Put the prepared cauliflower, and onion if using, into a baking tray.

   Season with salt and pepper, then drizzle with the reserved anchovy oil plus the tablespoon of olive oil.

   Mix together well until the vegetables are evenly coated.

3. Put in the oven and roast until the vegetables are cooked but still have some bite. Stir occasionally so they brown evenly all over. (20-25 minutes).

   Remove from the oven.

To Serve

1. Spoon over the vegetables as much of the Salsa Verde as you like, along with two thirds of the pine nuts and lemon zest.

2. Divide between two bowls, spooning over more of the Salsa Verde if liked, and sprinkle with the remaining pine nuts and lemon zest.

Recipe Notes

Omit the anchovies for a plant-based meal: replace with more capers and use an extra tablespoon of olive oil to replace the anchovy oil.

 

Roast some broccoli along with the cauliflower if liked.

 

For a more substantial meal, stir cooked pasta through the roasted vegetables after you've dressed them with Salsa Verde. You can also serve the Salsa Verde with Roasted Cauliflower over cooked grains such as bulgur wheat.