Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Giving up on Hazan's Salmoriglio

While sailing in the Bahamas over the winter vacation, I was wedded to a beat-up September issue of Food & Wine that was all about Italian. My neighbor has been re-gifting her issues of Food & Wine as well as her Bon Apetite mags to me under the thinly guised hope that I'll cook and invite her over to feast on my labor - hasn't happened quite yet but it's just a matter of time . . .

While several items piqued my curiosity, I was most eager to try a simple treatment for fish courtesy of Marcella Hazan (who is supposedly THE expert on Italian cooking in the US - I've frankly never heard of her, but what do I know?)

This Marinated Fish with Salmoriglio Sauce sounded really good and absurdly simple. Just salt the fish and sprinkle with olive oil, lemon juice and bread crumbs. Then make a basic sauce with fresh herbs, lemon juice, butter and olive oil. After two failed attempts, I've determined that the recipe is flawed in several ways (softened butter will not combine with lemon juice in a mini food processor on it's own for one).

Although with some fight, I was able to pulse in the olive oil and get an acceptable sauce, it occurred to me that this "Salmoriglio" sauce is just butter and olive oil - which separates into this gross grease when poured over hot fish. It's a big fat mess so I did something that is rare for me - I threw the recipe away. I'm moving on to the Gianduja Mousse from that same issue as soon as I can get the time to make it . . . I'm betting for an experience to reignite my passion for Italian.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Dude, there is NEVER butter in salmoriglio sauce. I use Marcella's recipe and there is only EVO, salt, lemon juice and oregano. You can add pepper if you want but not necessary.Quite simple and good not only on fish but also very good with veggies and I've seen some italian recipes that say you can also add it to some grilled meats.