The Magic of Salsa Verde
Plus: Tinned Seafood for Dinner, Fried Chicken and Cheddar Waffles, Plus Meals at Monkey Bar and Torrisi.
Hey everyone,
Have you ever smashed a bunch of garlic and herbs together in a mortar and pestle, added lemon juice and Dijon, and then stirred in enough olive oil to make a sauce? Then you’re missing out on one of my all-time favorite condiments, one that really showed up for us this weekend: Italian salsa verde (not to be confused with Mexican salsa verde).
Let’s rewind the tape. On Saturday night, Craig and I went to a cemetery for fun. That might sound weird, but this was an event called Death of Classical in the catacombs of The Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn.
When I signed us up for this, I had no idea how gorgeous Greenwood Cemetery would be. It’s one of the nicest public parks/destinations I’ve experience in New York City; in fact, it reminded me so much of similar destination cemeteries we’ve visited in Europe.
The event started with a whiskey tasting in the reception area, then we all took a trolly to the catacombs for a performance of Beethoven’s String Quartet in A minor, Op. 132 by the Ulysses Quartet. It’s one thing to hear a beautiful piece of classical music performed live; it’s another thing to hear it in a dim cave where bodies are buried all around you. The sound was amazing and the experience really unforgettable.
When we arrived back home (it started pouring and we grabbed an Uber), we had no clear dinner pan, so I turned to the tin fish that I purchased recently at Mercado Central.
I opened a can of smoked mackerel, which I put on toasted bread with lots of mustard, and then I opened a can of mussels and thought it needed something to pep it up. Enter salsa verde.
(That’s leftover grilled vegetable salad on the side; I added chickpeas to stretch it out.)
As mentioned, I made it by pounding garlic with parsley from the fridge, but it would’ve been just as good with basil or tarragon or dill or a mixture of all-of-the-above. Ratio wise, it’s about 2 garlic cloves, a pinch of salt, and about a cup of loosely packed green stuff. The pounding takes some elbow grease, but you’ll know you’re done when that big pile of herbs becomes just a paste. That’s when you add the Dijon (a tablespoon?), lemon juice (from one small lemon), and olive oil (at least 1/2 a cup) — but you could also add capers, chopped up gherkins. The world is your oyster… or mussel, as the case may be.
The next morning, I made scrambled eggs and I put leftover salsa verde on toast, topped with the eggs, and sprinkled more herbs on top. That’s the lead pic; here’s the set up:
Salsa verde: it’s good stuff to have around.
On Saturday for brunch, before the cemetery, we met our friend Bobby — plus his brother and his brother’s girlfriend, Fran — at Buttermilk Channel for brunch.
My best piece of advice, when it comes to getting brunch in New York: go anywhere that takes reservations. Nothing worse than waiting for a table on a 90 degree day. Buttermilk Channel had a table at 1:15 on Resy and we grabbed it.
There were lots of lovely items on the menu — including buttermilk pancakes, which almost won my vote — but I settled on the fried chicken with a cheddar waffle and coleslaw. And holy crap, was this delicious.
That dreamy combination of cheesy crispy waffle with crunchy salty fried chicken, married together with maple syrup? And then the coleslaw for health (ignoring the mayo)? This may be my favorite brunch dish in Brooklyn, at least so far.
Finally, my parents were in town this weekend and we ate some nice meals with them. Last night, we went to Monkey Bar, which was the coolest space — so much history! — and the food was pretty good, including these crispy potato pancakes and a wedge salad.
On Friday night, we went to Torrisi which is always a blast. Highlights for me were this ravioletto with shrimp:
Each piece was so beautifully made and it reminded me of Chinese shrimp dumplings that took a trip to Italy.
And this almond cheesecake for dessert was a knockout: almost as pretty to look at as it was to eat.
Okay, time for some links:
Emily Nussbaum’s Grub Street Diet is highly amusing (Grub Street);
The Stephen Sondheim estate auction made me suddenly covetous of Christian Dior plates (his went for thousands of dollars) and I have my eye on these vintage Renaissance plates … but they’re still so expensive (Replacements.com).
That’s all for today, folks!
See you back here on Thursday….
Your pal,
Adam