Green sauce - simple in name, exquisite in flavour

When I first moved to the UK, I was constantly taken aback by the simplification of food names. Take, for example, an ordinary breakfast at a cafe, and ordering a full English. "White or brown bread?" Huh? Oh, white bread or wheat bread. Okay, I'll go brown. "White or black coffee?" Say what?? Oh, with or without milk. With, please. And finally, "Red or brown sauce?" WTF???!! I don't know why the choice wasn't ketchup or HP sauce, but hey, it wasn't my country, so in the end I chose red and was done with the colour-fest.

I suppose with everyday items that we eat, it may just be easier to associate a colour with them. So when, in flipping through my copy of The Pauper's Cookbook (one of the best £5 I ever spent), I came across green sauce, I was ever so intrigued as to why I had yet to sample such a simply-named sauce. Of course I know of salsa verde as a Mexican salsa led with green ingredients, but this one was different.

A quick scan of the ingredient list revealed some exciting (green) stuff such as capers and parsley, but also anchovies, garlic, olive oil and (very cool) bread.

I decided to go with the author's suggestion and whip this up to go with some grilled pork chops. I made a few tweaks (including actually MEASURING out the olive oil), and I have to say, green sauce should be offered in line with all things white, black, brown, red, whatever colour you fancy.

Green sauce (adapted from Jocasta Innes)

(serves 4)

1 slice of bread, crusts removed (I used brown, if you must know)

1 tbsp wine vinegar

2 tbsp capers

1 clove garlic

2 anchovies

4 tbsp olive oil

a large handful of parsley, chopped

Soak a piece of bread in the vinegar and set to the side. In a pestle and mortar, combine the garlic, anchovies and capers.

Squeeze the excess vinegar from the bread and tear into little pieces. Add to the pestle and mortar and continue to pound into a smooth consistency. THen add the parsley and continue to mash together.

Slowly drizzle the olive oil in a tbsp at a time and continue to mix together. Once you've finished adding the oil, if you're not happy with the consistency, use a hand blender or food processor to blitz it for a second. It will have the consistency of a tapenade sans olives.

You'll come out with a divinely deep green sauce that tastes as amazing on grilled pork chops as it does with fish or even just a piece of fresh bread (colour of your choosing). Whereas Sunday night I had it with pork chops, tonight I'm having it with on bread with butter and a rustic vegetable soup.

Calories: about 150 per serving. Very easy to make and keeps well in the fridge for at least 4-5 days.