Sette Salse -- Seven Sauces
There's not getting around it; the meat that's used to make broth is fairly bland when it's cooked. This isn't the problem you might think, because it's a perfect foil for tasty sauces. This is a collection of the sauces traditionally used to accompany a bollito misto alla piemontese. You may not want to go to that much effort, but if you boil up some vegetables (carrots, potatoes, leeks, and turnips, for example) while the stock pot bubbles, and serve everything with a zesty red wine and freshly baked bread, you'll have a wonderful, simple meal.
Bagnèt Ross requires:
- 2 1/4 pounds ripe tomatoes
- A scant pound (400 g) onions
- 2 medium-sized carrots
- 1 rib celery
- 3 cloves garlic
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 3/4 cup olive oil
- 2 tablespoons vinegar (red wine if possible)
- hot red pepper to taste (go easy)
- Salt
Coarsely chop the tomatoes, onions, carrots and celery, crush the garlic, and put them all in a pot with half the oil. Bring the vegetables to a boil, then reduce the flame to a minimum and stir in the sugar and the vinegar. Simmer uncovered for about 3 1/2 half hours. Crank the vegetables through a foodmill into an elegant bowl, stir in the remaining oil, and add crushed red pepper and salt to taste.
Bagnet Vert, which is closely related to salsa verde, requires:
- 1/4 pound of parsley
- 1 clove garlic
- 2 salted anchovies
- 2-3 slices day-old bread, with crusts removed (this will depend upon the size of your loaf of bread)
- 3 small mild pickles (dills will work, though pickles without dill would be better)
- 1 teaspoon capers, preserved in either vinegar or salt, rinsed
- A scant cup of red wine vinegar
- 1/3 cup plus one tablespoon olive oil
Soak the bread in the vinegar. Bone and wash the anchovies. Mince the parsley with the garlic, anchovies, and pickles. Gently squeeze the bread to drain it, and add it to the mixture; continue mincing for a couple more minutes, then transfer the mixture to a bowl. Using a wooden spoon, slowly stir in the olive oil, working the mixture well so as to obtain a fairly fluid sauce.
Salsa del pòvr'òm, the poor man's sauce, requires:
- An onion
- 2-3 shallots
- 2-3 spring onions
- A few cloves of garlic
- A cup of dry red wine
- The juice of a lemon
- Salt and pepper to taste.
Grind the onions, shallots, spring onions and garlic into a paste. Bring the cup of wine to a boil, then stir it into the paste. Salt the mixture to taste, and stir in the lemon juice. Put the sauce through a strainer (or blend it until it is very finely chopped), season it with pepper to taste, and it is ready.
Saosa 'd avije, honey sauce, requires:
- 1/2 cup honey
- 1/2 cup broth
- 1 teaspoon powdered mustard
- 12 walnuts
Mix the honey and the broth and stir in the mustard. Clean the walnuts, removing the brownish skin surrounding the nutmeats, and mince them very fine. Stir the nuts into the honey mixture and the sauce is ready.
Another thing you should consider is Mostarda d'uva, a jam-like condiment made from grape must that goes quite nicely with boiled meats, and is also surprisingly good with a selection of cheeses (you can substitute granulated honey in this case). Alas, the recipes I have seen all call for beginning with a gallon or more of grape must, an ingredient not easily available in most places. Nor is mostarda d'uva easy to find outside of Piemonte. However, if you have access to a well stocked delicatessen, you may be able to substitute Mostarda di Cremona, a distinctive sauce made by candying fruit with mustard seeds. As a final pair of condiments for your bollito, you may want some balsamic vinegar -- the Emilians generally do -- and also mustard and mayonnaise.
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Bollito Misto alla Piemontese
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