Little Green Dress Everyday Condiment

Vivian Howard offers “Hero” recipes in her cookbook This Will Make it Taste Good. These heroes are designed to be simple condiments that you can make at home to make meals extra flavorful.

LITTLE GREEN DRESS EVERYDAY CONDIMENT

Makes 2 cups

No-brainer ways to use LGD at your next dinner party:

• Dollop on steak, roast chicken, lamb, pork or seafood
• Spoon on baked potatoes
• Add to salads with creamy cheeses
• Spoon on top of bowls of soup
• Mix into chicken, potato or egg salad
• Spread on top of pizza
• Thin with oil to make a vinaigrette

Here’s what’s important:

• This recipe is specific in calling for a certain variety of olive, shallots instead of onion, and a particular hue of vinegar. But know that it is LGD’s equation that makes it heroic, not its details. To make your own variant of LGD, you need fresh, fragrant herbs; something onion-esque; the combined brine power of olives, capers, and anchovy; the juxtaposed acid of both vinegar and citrus; and the fruity fat of a good-quality olive oil. Don’t get hung up on the variety of vinegar you don’t have or the fact that you’ve got onion and no shallot. Just follow the equation and taste what happens.
• This is not the place for dried herbs. The parsley and mint must be fresh and fragrant.
• Don’t even think about lemon juice from the bottle.
• LGD will keep in your fridge for one month but don’t relegate it to your freezer. It doesn’t respond well to the lack of attention and its cold environment. Believe it or not, because of its high acid content, it’ll be just fine on your counter for about a week.
• Don’t let some of the ingredients deter you: I’ve knowingly fed this to haters of olives and anchovies alike, and everybody wanted more. However, if you are a vegetarian, omit the anchovies and make LGD anyway.

Ingredients:

2 medium shallots, peeled

2 cloves garlic, peeled

3 tablespoons red wine vinegar

⅔ cup Castelvetrano olives, pitted

1½ tablespoons capers, rinsed

2 oil-packed anchovy filets

1 bunch fresh flat-leaf parsley (about 1 cup packed)

2 (½-ounce) packages fresh mint (about ½ cup packed)

½ cup tasty extra-virgin olive oil

Grated zest of 1 lemon

¼ cup fresh lemon juice

1 teaspoon hot sauce

½ teaspoon kosher salt

Directions:

1. In a small food processor, mince the shallots and the garlic, then stir them in a small bowl with the red wine vinegar. We want them to pickle a bit, so give them all some privacy for about 20 minutes before you add them to the rest of the ingredients.
2. Meanwhile, mince the pitted olives, capers, and anchovies in the food processor. Transfer to a medium bowl. Pick the leaves and smaller stems from the parsley and the leaves from the mint and mince in the food processor; it may take a little while to get them all fully processed. Transfer the herbs to the bowl with the olive mixture.
3. 3 Add the vinegar-shallot-garlic mixture, olive oil, lemon zest and juice, hot sauce, and salt to the bowl with everything else. Stir it all together and let this vinegary puddle of green sit for a minimum of 30 minutes before you bathe in it. LGD will keep for a month in a sealed container in your fridge as long as all the green stuff is submerged in just a bit of olive oil.