Living in San Francisco you encounter a large hispanic population and I have many friends who are hispanic. When I was a kid everyone used to call them “Mexican” because I guess we didn’t know or care about countries below Mexico. I recently discovered a sauce that while originating in Argentina is apparently known all the way up to Mexico and it’s called chimichurri. It’s very similar to the Italian pesto sauce only instead of basil it uses flat leafed Italian parsley. While I can’t say for sure, there are a lot of Italians who immigrated to Argentina so maybe that’s why it was created there, but you’d think they could grow some basil there wouldn’t you? It’s used as an accompaniment to meats of all types from beef to chicken to pork to fish. It’s heavy on the garlic and just gives the meat and intensely earthy feel without the dirt [and why is it people eat expensive truffles when dirt is so much cheaper?]. Here’s my recipe and I hope you try it because you’ll be surprised at how good it is. Now I have to compare it to one of the local churassco houses in SF that’s opened up since Argentinians started to lay claim to SF. I tend to like mine on the well blended side so it doesn’t look too much like oil and weeds, but grind it as much as you like.
Chimichurri
Ingredients:
1 bunch parsley
8 garlic cloves
9oz olive oil
2oz white wine vinegar
2oz water
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp oregano
1/2 tsp chilli flakes
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
Add everything except the oil to a food processor or blender. Start it up and slowly add the olive oil. It might be 9oz more or less, but you’ll know when it’s ready when it’s thick and creamy. It doesn’t exactly separate, but after a day or two you do get a bit more oil on top. I have a set of handy squeeze bottle on hand to fill it up with the sauce and then I’ll squirt it on one of my famous burgers [that’s another story] or heavily douse a nice beef tenderloin or london broil with it.
