A Good Pepper Sauce
This sauce has a great tangy zip to it and goes very well with pork.
Country: Italy Century: 15th
- 1 cup pork stock*
- 1 cup red wine
- 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
- 2 slices bread, toasted
- 2 oz raisins
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 1/4 tsp cinnamon
- 1/8 tsp clove
- 1/8 tsp ginger
Soak the toasted bread with the vinegar, until it is mushy. Pulse raisins in a small processor and add soaked bread, pulsing once or twice more. Put bread and raisin mixture in a bowl with the red wine and pork stock. Let sit for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Strain the mixture through a seive into a small saucepot. Add the spices. Simmer sauce over low heat for about 5 minutes or until the sauce thickens slightly.
*I made my pork stock using a couple of spareribs, about two cups of water, and approximately a teaspoon of salt. If you wish you to skip this step, you could substitute a commercial boullion as a base for your broth.
Original Recipe Sources
Source [ The Neapolitan Recipe Collection , Terence Scully (trans.)]: To make a good Pepper Sauce. To make a good Pepper Sauce for goat kid, hare, wild boar or any other game animal, get equal amounts of water and red wine and wash the meat in this; strain this washing-liquid, then cook the meat in it, adding a little salt; when the meat is cooked, lift it out. If your wish to make two plates of Pepper Sauce, get a pound and a half of raisins and grind them up well, and as much again of bread, thinly sliced and toasted on the grill and soaked in good vinegar, and grind it with the raisins; if you can get the pluck of those game animals, it would be best to grind this in as well; when everything is ground up well, it ought to be distempered with the broth of the meat along with a little must or vinegar; then strain all this into a pot, adding all sorts of spices and a fair amount of pepper; then boil it for half an hour away from a hot fire and keep it out of the smoke, stirring it often with a spoon; then fry the meat in good lardo, dish it out and cover it with this Pepper Sauce - the darker the prettier. To make it dark take a ram''s spleen and grind that up with the above. Note that, if you wish, there should be a beaker of strong vinegar and strong ginger with this meat.