Foodists

Arugula Salsa Verde

At my local grocery store in Harlem, I get a great deal on arugula – $5 for a plastic salad box literally stuffed full of spicy little leaves.

Arugula goes into salads, and sandwiches, but no matter how fast I seem to eat it, I can never get through the pile of rocket-shaped greens before they start to shrink away.

Yesterday, I was cooking steak, and remembered a delicious arugula italian-style salsa verde that used to feature on the menu at Campagnolo. Or maybe it was a cilantro salsa verde? Regardless, I decided to wing the recipe and see if I could come up with something close. It worked.

– a bit handful of arugula, finely chopped
– one garlic clove, minced
– some capers, finely chopped
– two anchovy filets, smushed
– juice & zest from one lemon

The goal is to get a paste, much like a pesto. There’s a lot of room to readjust the flavours by adding more or less of anything.

This brilliant green, slightly spicy sauce is great with grilled meats of any kind – give it a try!

Arugula photo by Chiot’s Run.