Sauce Vierge: Quick, Easy & Delicious
Sauce Vierge is a French sauce that combines summer’s light, fresh taste. It’s a vinaigrette made with just chopped tomatoes, olive oil, and fresh herbs, along with a splash of lemon juice and zest. The ingredients are tossed together before being served and can be used to dress grilled meat or fish.
Sauce Vierge is a quick and easy way to add some flavor to your food. It’s great on sandwiches, salads, and even grilled chicken. It was created and popularized by the great French chef Michel Guérard and is a famous example of his cuisine minceur, a lighter spin on traditional nouvelle cuisine. (https://www.masterclass.com/articles/chef-thomas-kellers-sauce-vierge-recipe)
I love this recipe because it’s so easy to make, but it’s also versatile! You can use different types of tomatoes depending on what you have available in your kitchen: Roma tomatoes are sumptuous because they hold up well in sauces like this one without getting too mushy; cherry tomatoes have an added sweetness that works well with the other ingredients; heirloom tomatoes have beautiful colors that make them ideal for garnishing salads.
The French version of salsa is made from chopped tomatoes, fresh herbs, lemon juice, and olive oil. It’s light and summery in taste and appearance—the perfect complement to grilled fish or chicken! Not to be confused with how Pikliz is used, it is also very silimar to Bruschetta.
Sauce Vierge Ingredients & Our Variations
- Tomatoes: peeled, cored, and diced. You can use either Campari, Heirloom, Roma, Cherry, or Grape tomatoes.
- Vinegar of your choice: rice wine vinegar, champagne vinegar, balsamic or white wine vinegar
- Shallots, minced: red onion or regular white onion.
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil: this is the best oil you should use for this recipe. You can also use a lemon-infused oil or any other citrusy-infused olive oil.
- Sea salt: Himalayan or Fleur du Sel is also great. Make sure that the salt is acceptable so it can resolve quickly.
- Ground Black Pepper: fresh is always better.
- Fresh herbs: always use fresh herbs. Your options are parsley, basil, chives, tarragon, and my watercress. Although watercress is a leafy vegetable that is mostly in salads and stews, its slightly bitter and peppery taste goes wonderfully with lemon juice and olive oil.
- Fresh lemon juice: is also a must. Do not substitute with bottled lemon juice. It won’t have the same fresh taste.
- Lemon zest: this adds a fresh lemon taste that goes well with fresh tomatoes and olive oil.
How to Make Sauce Vierge
Sauce Vierge is incredibly versatile. You can also mix the parsley with the watercress, as I have done.
- Place the diced tomatoes and minced shallots into a mixing bowl. Add enough olive oil to coat and absorb into the tomatoes thoroughly.
- Gently fold in the chopped parsley and watercress and season with salt, black pepper, vinegar, lemon zest, and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice.
- You can make and serve this tasty dish in just a few minutes.
One last step that is usually omitted by some cooks is cooking the sauce. After mixing the sauce, place the mixture into a saucepan and gently bring it to a boil. Only cook for about 1-2 minutes, just enough time for ingredients to flavor each other. This sauce is not meant to be fully cooked.
How to Serve Sauce Vierge
Delicious! You can’t have too much of this sauce. It’s fantastic on any fish or chicken and goes great on burgers, sandwiches, or pasta salads. Sauce Vierge is strikingly simple yet surprisingly versatile. It’s an ideal summertime sauce or accompaniment to a refreshing appetizer or side dish. And despite its simplicity, it possesses layers of flavor that make it flavorful and complex. The best thing about it is that it only takes about ten minutes to complete.
Notes and tips
- The sauce may be prepared up to a day in advance and stored in the refrigerator. If you refrigerate, allow the sauce to come to room temperature before serving so that the flavors unfold and the olive oil has not thickened.
- You can serve it as part of an appetizer platter or use it on top of a salad or even meats like chicken, steak, seafood, or pork chops!
Sauce Vierge
Equipment
Ingredients
- 3 large ripe tomatoes (about 1 1/2 pounds), diced
- 2 shallots chopped or minced
- 2 whole peeled garlic cloves, smashed
- 3 tbsp roughly chopped parsley
- 2 tbsp watercress roughly chopped
- 1/2 – ¾ cup extra-virgin olive oil or to taste
- Freshly squeezed lemon juice to taste
- Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
- ½ – 1 tsp Grated lemon zest
Instructions
- Place the diced tomatoes and minced shallots into a mixing bowl. Add enough olive oil to coat and absorb into the tomatoes thoroughly.
- Gently fold in the chopped parsley and watercress and season with salt, black pepper, vinegar, lemon zest, and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice.
- You can make and serve this tasty dish in just a few minutes.
- Taste and adjust the seasoning
- After mixing the sauce, place the mixture into a saucepan and gently bring it to a boil. Only cook for about 1-2 minutes, just enough time for ingredients to flavor each other. This sauce is not meant to be fully cooked.
Notes
- This recipe makes about 2 cups of sauce.
- Like the French, the natural way to make this sauce is with fresh herbs such as parsley, basil, tarragon, and chives. But when you don’t have those herbs available, you improvise.
- Use at room temperature.
- Serve with grilled or roasted vegetables, poultry, pork, red meat, pasta, and even crusty or flatbread.
- Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator when ready to serve.
- Bring to room temperature before serving or gently warm the sauce on the stovetop, but do not simmer.
Nutrition
Please keep in mind that nutritional information is a rough estimate and can vary greatly based on the products used.
Nutrition info is automatically generated and provided as a courtesy and as an estimate only.
