Sluttishly Simple: Salsa Verde

Do you stick rigidly to a recipe or do you make it up a bit? This was just one of the topics we discussed on Monday's Sluttery Food Chat and the consensus was, we like to make it up a bit. Apparently, none of us are very good at following rules! When you see a recipe you like, but don't have all the ingredients, or don't like one of the flavours, you don't let that stop you from making something slightly different, but equally as delicious.

Salsa verde is just the sort of recipe that lets you do your own thing. Traditionally, it contains parsley, basil, garlic, capers, anchovies, olive oil and vinegar, but you can swap the ingredients around. You can switch the vinegar for lemon juice and add mustard, if you fancy. If you don't like anchovies, leave them out (although, I recommend leaving them in there, just once - you might be surprised by how good it is) and if you love garlic, add extra.  For an oriental twist, use coriander, mint and lime juice with chopped chilli instead of capers or try adding tarragon and white wine vinegar for chicken. This version is especially good with fish, but feel free to experiment…

Salsa Verde (serves four)
You'll need:

• 50g parsley
• 20g chervil
• 10g mint leaves
• 1 tbsp capers, rinsed
• 1 fat clove of garlic
• 2 anchovy fillets
• ½ lemon, zest and juice
• 150ml olive oil
• salt, to season

Make it!

1. Finely chop the herbs and capers.
2. Bash the garlic and anchovies into paste with a pestle and add the herbs.
3. Stir in the lemon juice and olive oil to make a loose sauce.
4. Taste and add salt if needed (remember that the capers and anchovies are both salty, so you might not need to add more).

or 

1. Put all the ingredients in the food processor and pulse until you reach the right consistency.