This salsa verde is a Mediterranean version, not the Mexican one with tomatillos. Like chimichurri, it provides a brash, brilliant, complex flavor to meat, fish—anything. We even toss it with our fries. The tang comes from garlic, capers, and anchovies—basically a direct transfusion of umami. Parsley is the traditional herb ingredient that makes it verde, but I like to buff up the complexity by using cilantro and mint as well. In this case, I think it works best to use a good Italian extra-virgin olive oil, but the sauce will still be good if you want to cut the olive oil with something like canola oil. It’s important that you put all the ingredients into the blender at the same time so you don’t have to blend and blend, the action of which can damage the olive oil and create heat that will cook the herbs.
Serves: 6–8 (Maybe up to 10 if you don’t use a lot. I do.)
3 cloves garlic, peeled
10 white anchovy fillets in oil
¼ cup small nonpareil capers, drained but not rinsed
½ cup packed cilantro leaves
½ cup packed parsley leaves
½ cup packed mint leaves
1 tablespoon plus ¾ teaspoon fresh lemon juice
¾ teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
⅓ cup canola oil
1 cup extra-virgin olive oil
Put the garlic, anchovies, capers, cilantro, parsley, mint, ¾ teaspoon of the lemon juice, ½ teaspoon of the salt, ½ teaspoon of the pepper, canola oil, and olive oil in the jar of a blender and cover.
Turn the blender on low, gradually increasing the speed to high. Check the mixture after about 30 seconds and scrape down the container. You want a nice creamy texture, like pesto.
Taste, and add the remaining 1 tablespoon lemon juice, ¼ teaspoon salt, and ½ teaspoon pepper. Blend on the lowest speed to incorporate.
I’m different from many people in that I’m not a big fan of pouring straight butter over steak. But I can admit that the leaner cuts like the flat iron, culotte, or the chuck flap can occasionally use a little boost in fat content, and a compound butter is an excellent solution. It’s just herbs or other flavorings mixed into softened butter, after which the mixture is recooled. The butter hardens in the refrigerator in whatever shape you’ve given it and can be easily sliced or scooped onto a hot steak just before serving, over which it promptly melts, spreading its flavor accents in a gloss of buttery richness.
A good technique for shaping the butter is to scoop it on a sheet of parchment paper in a long mound and roll the paper like you are making a sushi roll until the butter forms a nice cylinder, about the diameter of a quarter. Chill it down in the fridge until it’s hardened, and then you can just cut a slab off the end and throw away the paper wrapping, and the butter will melt all over the steak. Once made, it will last for weeks in the fridge.*