If you like ramps and wild onions, ramp leaf salsa verde is a new sauce for you to put on just about everything. I typically keep some sort of herby-mildy spicy sauce around the house for drizzling on things in a pinch, typically made from cilantro, oregano, or lovage, and, while they all follow the same method, each one tastes a little different, especially when I start using blends of garden herbs. If you have some cilantro from the store or garden, feel free to add a handful to this.
This is a condiment by the ramp lover, for the ramp lover. But, if I know one thing, it’s that some people have a bigger tolerance for the heat of raw garlic and all the other “stinking roses” out there, so I’m going to outline a couple different ways to make the salsa verde taking that into account. (See garlicky AF version in the recipe below if you enjoy sleeping alone). The basic process for is simple though: blanch a few herbs, add some capers, anchovy, a good pinch of chili flakes, lemon juice or red wine vinegar, and puree until it’s velvety smooth.
Wait. Anchovies you say? “Bbbbut salsa doesn’t include anchovies!” There’s two different salsa verdes. Latin American salsa verde is a sauce made from tomatillos, Italian-style salsa verde is herb based, and lighter. Both are delicious. If you’re squeemish about anchovies, I urge you to give it a shot as it’s really part of the magic here. If you like anchovies, make sure to bookmark my anchovy pan sauce recipe you can serve with steak or roasted mushrooms, too, see that recipe here.
Velvet. The Vitamix makes short work of things like this–another reason to save up for one if you’ve ever wondered.
There’s a secret though, a real secret to salsa verdes that no one talks about. Go to a restaurant and see the word salsa verde on the menu and there’s no telling what you’ll get. On one hand, you could get a luscious, velvety sauce, the other possibility is that you get a thick, mulchy paste of herbal grass clippings. The secret is water.
Adding water to something might make you think you’re diluting it, but not so. Cultures around the world have thinned herb sauces with water for a very long time, especially in places near the sea, where, you guessed it, sea water is used (If you want to know more about those, look up Sicilian salmoriglio sauce, and chimmichurri). The water thins things out a bit, refreshing the texture and ensuring that you can spoon the sauce onto all the things. That being said, if you live somewhere with sea water, you could definitely boil some, cool it, and give it a shot–just omit the salt.
Put it on a steak, soup, eggs, chicken, fish, potatoes, or put it on a shoe–it’s good just about anywhere. Don’t be scared if it tastes a bit hot from the ramp leaves at first, or if it’s a bit much for your tastes. The sauce mellows after a bit in the fridge becoming more mild after a few days.
Ramp Leaf Salsa Verde
Equipment
- Good blender
Ingredients
- 2.5 oz Fresh ramp leaves, washed and cleaned (this roughly 2 cups of loosely packed, chopped leaves)
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
- 1 tablespoon anchovy paste or finely chopped anchovies (do not skip these)
- 2 oz lemon juice + zest of one lemon (red wine vinegar is a good substitute
- 1.5 tablespoons non-pareille capers
- 1/8-1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes depending on your heat tolerance
- ¾ cup 6 oz blended olive oil
- ¼ cup water
Instructions
- Bring a small pot (a quart or so) of salted water to a boil.
- Blanch half of the ramp leaves in boiling water for a few seconds or until just wilted, you can also steam them. Squeeze the leaves dry and chop medium-fine with the remaining fresh ramp leaves. If you like a stronger ramp flavor, use all fresh leaves without par cooking any.
- Combine the ramp leaves and remaining ingredients except the oil and water in the bowl of a blender, then puree, drizzling in the oil, until very smooth.
- At the end, add the water, then puree for another 5 seconds or so to really get it nice and smooth. Transfer to a pint jar and store in the fridge. The sauce will lose it’s bright green color after a few days but will be good for weeks.
Video
Notes
Variations
- Garlicky Ramp Salsa Verde
Puree the ramp leaves, chopped, raw in the sauce, and prepare to sleep alone. - 50/50 Ramp Leaf-Herb Sauce
Instead of all ramps, use half of another herb, added raw to the blender--cilantro is my favorite.
This is exactly the recipe I was hoping you’d share! I’m going “ramping” today, and I also have (purchased by mistake–thinking it was cilantro) extra flat leaf parsley to use up. We’re getting a shipment of Bubbling Springs Farm beef later today, so this will be a great condiment to have on hand! Thanks.
Good deal. Let me know if you have any questions troubleshooting Judy.
Loved it. I first ran through a food processor. I then blended half of that mix in the Vitamix. Reminded me a smoother Chimichurri. Do you think cooked nettles would be a good addition to this sauce? I selectively pick ramps from the same patch every year- only picking the tops. The next year, the one’s I picked the year before are smaller and therefore do not get picked. By year 2, they are fully grown and ready to be picked again.
Hey Keith, good deal. As far as nettles, no, I wouldn’t use them here since they don’t have an herbaceous flavor. Our local monarda fistulosa is coming up though, and that, along with cilantro, would be good additions. But, I’ve been pouring the sauce on steamed nettles and it’s great.
This sounds incredible. Excited to try it with the ramps I gathered this weekend. Does this sauce freeze well, if I want to store some for later?
Hi Sean. Yes, the sauce will freeze well, and I would recommend doing that. Over time, it will lose the bright green color in the fridge, but frozen sauce would be just like new. The only issue that you’ll have is that if you use extra virgin olive oil, it will firm up in the freezer, and after thawing you may need to bring it to room temperature to get it to be pour-able again. (I shake it in a jar at home) After you have it around for a while you’ll get to know how it behaves. You can definitely scale this up and make bigger batches, and although lemon juice is the best for it, cider or even red wine vinegar could be substituted too. LMK if you need any help trouble shooting. A
Just made this for the first time and it’s absolutely delicious! A wonderful change from my usual pesto. Thank you for sharing!
That was just my intention. Glad you liked it! A
Just made the Garlic AF version with lime juice. Delicious!!!
Lol. Glad you liked it. Also known as the “sleep alone version”. Even so after a few days it will calm down from the acid.
I just made a batch, the color is amazing and the taste is over the top. Can wait to use it with some lamb.
Just made mine today added a few pickles garlic scapes to supplement the capers, tastes great.
Hi Alan (or anybody else),
You mention freezing as a way to preserve this longer-term. Do you think it could be canned? Is there enough acidity for a water-bath canning or would it need to be pressure canned or would you just suggest not to can at all?
Hey Jacqui.
You can definitely water bath can this if you make a couple adjustments. Instead of using the leaves fresh, toss them with 2-3% of their weight in salt and eight mush them up in a jar or vacuum seal. Ferment them to maximum low pH (2 weeks). They will be weapons-grade stinky and delicious. From there, follow the recipe the same way, using the fermented greens instead of the fresh ones. I would use red wine vinegar instead of lemon juice for stability too. It won’t have a bright green color, but you lose that with the fresh version after a couple days anyway. It won’t be exactly the same, but I’ve made a number of different sauces from lacto-ramp leaves like this and they can be really good.
Learned this one thanks to Kenji Lopez-Alt’s hummus recipr. Blend the lemon juice with the ramps and let it sit for 5 minutes. The ph gets rid of the majority of the allicin. I made this last night and did exactly that, no blanching at all. The taste was mildly garlicy. Good way to get more ramps in the sauce if you’re inclined!
That can be a good workaround. The Food Lab is a great book, I use it regularly.