About a year ago, our friend Angelique had the Haverim over for a pot luck. Her husband Hugo was going to be grilling beef ribs, and while we sat around sipping wine or beer, she brought out some appetizers. There was a platter of chips and veggies and dip -- isn't there always? -- and a platter of sliced tomatoes with mozzarella cheese melted over it, topped with chopped basil. Scrumptious!
But then she brought out the dish that made me fall in love: small bread slices accompanied by a green pesto-looking sauce she called "chimichurri." I could not get enough of the parsley-garlic-olive oil mixture. It was heavenly.
I tried to get her to post her recipe on Facebook; I tried to replicate it from what she told me. However, it was only yesterday that I figured out how to make a comparable chimichurri.
After researching numerous recipes on the web, and remembering the taste of Angelique's version, I came up with this:
Chimichurri
8 cloves of garlic
1 cup packed flat-leaved parsley (cut off the stems)
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil (and maybe a bit more, to suit your taste)
1 - 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
Chuck all of it into a food processor and let 'er rip for as long as it takes to make the stuff into a bright green slush.
Serve over meats, pasta, veggies, however you like. Especially offer it as a spread for fresh bread.
Variations include adding basil, or onion, or hot peppers, or cumin.
So very good, truly a work of art.
