Buenos Aires is packed with outdoor restaurants and street vendors serving beef any which way. Wherever you find yourself, you hear the sound of the sizzle of fat on grills, the smell of the garlic in their national sauce, Chimichurri, on the charred meat and the clinking of glasses filled with their garnet colored national wine, Malbec. Meat and chimichurri accompanied by an occasional vegetable, makes for an everyday meal in this beautiful country and is a wonderful changes of pace for outdoor cooking in our Northeastern backyards.
When making Chimichurri, I work with this traditional Argentine Chimichurri recipe because my friends from this part of the world would boycott my page if I added cilantro to this condiment. I admit that I quite like cilantro in my Chimichurri but for this recipe we will stick with the basic recipe.
Makes 2 cups
Ingredients
2 cups packed parsley, minced
3 tablespoons minced garlic
3 tablespoons minced oregano
1 1/2 tablespoons red pepper flakes
1 to 1 1/4 cups extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
salt to taste
Method
Pull the leaves off the stems of parsley and oregano and save them for garden stock. Whichever parsley you use, make sure it’s the freshest you can find (you can substitute and 1 tablespoon of dried oregano for fresh).
Add the fresh herbs to a food processor, pulse until fine, then add the red pepper flakes, olive oil, and vinegar and salt.
Decant the sauce into your container of choice. Let the chimichurri sit out overnight at room temperature and the flavors with intensify. Pour into several small canning jars and story for up to a month in the fridge and give one away to a foodie friend.
