Fourth? In a series

[madbaker]

What can I say? I like them. This week's Resolution Recipe: Garlic sauce yellow.

Garlic sauce white, dark red [morella], green and yellow.
Take the garugli ["a kinde of nut so called"] from the walnuts and clean them, and the inside of a white bread softened in good broth, and as much garlic as you like, and salt, and grind everything together well, then dilute it with good broth, either of meat or fish according to what you like. And if you do not want garlic, take pepper and ginger. And if you want it yellow, put in a bit of saffron. If you want it dark red [morella] or bright red [incarnata], take carobs and scrape them gently, and set them to boil in water, and when they are cooked, that the part on top that is colored, and pass it through the sieve with broth, put it in a pot, and bring it to a boil and dilute it with more broth and pass it through a sieve, and then dilute your garlic sauce with more or less color, according to whether you want it light or dark. You can do the same with mulberries / blackberries in their season, and black grapes.

Similarly if you want it green, take the juice of parsley or beet greens, and set it to boil in a pot with broth, and parsley or beet greens in a good amount, and when it becomes thick, pass it through a sieve, then dilute it with broth, and then dilute your garlic sauce. And this sauce is served cold, and instead of garugli you can make it with almonds, and clean hazelnuts, apricot seeds, especially in summer. And you can serve it plain or mix in [88v] meat or boiled fish, or [serve it] on top of macaron. (Messisbugo, 1557)

1/2 cup walnut meats
2 Tbsp bread crumbs
1/4 cup chicken broth
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 oz garlic, peeled and crushed
8 threads saffron, crushed

Soak saffron in the broth, then mix in the bread crumbs to absorb the liquid. Grind everything together. Let the sauce sit for 30 minutes to meld flavors and develop color before using.
Sources

Cristoforo da Messisbugo, Banchetti, composizioni di vivande e apparecchio generale (Libro Novo). Ariane Helou, trans. Self-published, 2011.

What worked: I liked it. It's not as good as Allos Quesos, but better than Subhonours. It turned a nice yellow. It went nicely over beef.

What didn't: I didn't give it the half hour to meld before using, so the flavors weren't suitably combined. The leftovers were much yellower this morning when we put the rest over eggses.

Will I make it again? Sure. It might be interesting to try some of the other color variations too.

Comments

Squee!

[gormflaith.livejournal.com]

I am starting at the beginning of the recipes, only a much smaller batch. I'm off to get more rosewater after work :-)
We had mulberries from the farmer's market in Palo Alto a couple of weekends ago, that sauce might be nice over chicken with the mulberries.