Salsa verde, flavouring profile

Salsa verde, flavouring profile

Salsa verde is a sharp, salty sauce of green herbs, capers and anchovy, and it wants a wine as green and bright as the sauce itself.

The compounds that matter. The fresh, green oils of parsley, mint and basil, which a white with a grassy or herbal register mirrors directly. Capers and anchovy, which add brine and savoury depth, making tannin taste harder and reacting badly with oak. Vinegar or lemon, which sets a floor of acidity any wine must clear.

What it demands of a wine. High acidity and a green herb or citrus register. No oak. Light to medium body. Tannin only where the sauce goes on boiled or roast meat, and then soft.

Seek. Pecorino from Abruzzo, taut and green herbed. Falanghina from Campania, lemony and mineral, for salsa verde with fish. Txakoli from the Basque country, salty and faintly spritzy, which stands up to the anchovy. Dolcetto from Piedmont, soft in tannin and dark fruited, where the sauce goes on boiled beef or roast lamb.

Avoid

Oaked whites, since anchovy and oak together taste metallic and the barrel buries the herbs. Firmly tannic reds, which the savoury capers and anchovy turn hard. Soft, low acid whites, which the vinegar makes flat.

Three to reach for. Pecorino, Abruzzo, Italy. Txakoli, Basque country, Spain. Dolcetto, Piedmont, Italy.