Venetian Sauce

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Wide 4-quart (3.8-liter) heavy saucepan
• •Fine-mesh sieve
• •2-quart (1.9-liter) heatproof bowl or measuring jug
• •Balloon whisk
• •Flexible spatula

Instructions

1. 1

   Ready the components

   Have the White Wine Sauce (No. 111) warm and smooth, not boiling, and keep the Herb Juice (No. 183) cold until the finish. Chop the shallots and both measures of herbs just before cooking. Set a heatproof bowl beneath a fine-mesh sieve. The old kitchen had these preparations waiting at the sauce station; your mise en place does the same work without requiring another pair of hands.

   Chervil bruises and darkens quickly. Use a sharp knife, cut it once, and keep the finishing herbs cold while the reduction cooks.
2. 2

   Reduce the acid

   Put the shallots, the chervil reserved for the reduction, the white wine, and the tarragon vinegar into a wide four-quart saucepan. Bring to a lively simmer and reduce the original 2 cups to 2/3 cup, stirring occasionally and watching closely near the end. It should smell rounded and aromatic, not like raw vinegar, and the shallots should be tender. If the pan nearly dries or the shallots begin to catch, pull it from the heat and add equal spoonfuls of wine and tarragon vinegar until you have 2/3 cup again. Ça se rattrape.

   Mark the starting depth on a wooden spoon, or pour the reduction briefly into a heatproof measure when it looks close. The clock changes with the width of the pan; volume tells the truth.
3. 3

   Join the white sauce

   Lower the heat and whisk in the White Wine Sauce (No. 111) a ladleful at a time until the reduction is fully dispersed, then add the remainder. Bring the sauce just to a controlled boil and cook for 3 minutes, whisking across the bottom so nothing catches. The sauce should remain smooth and nappant. If it begins to look oily or grainy, remove it from the heat at once; whisk a ladleful vigorously in a cool bowl until smooth, then whisk the rest back into it gradually. Ça se rattrape, but boiling harder will not rescue it.

4. 4

   Pass through the sieve

   Pour the sauce through the fine-mesh sieve into the waiting bowl, pressing the shallot and cooked chervil firmly with a flexible spatula to extract the seasoned sauce caught among them. Scrape the underside of the sieve into the bowl. This replaces rubbing through a tammy, giving the same smooth body with equipment a home kitchen actually owns.

5. 5

   Green and finish

   Return the strained sauce to the clean pan over the gentlest heat. Add the Herb Juice (No. 183) one spoonful at a time, whisking after each addition, until the sauce becomes a clear, natural herb green and tastes freshly aromatic without losing its body. Fold in the chopped chervil and tarragon, then remove the pan from the heat. Do not boil after the Herb Juice (No. 183) goes in or the green will turn dull. If the pan was too hot and the color has faded, cool the sauce briefly and whisk in another spoonful of the reserved Herb Juice (No. 183).

6. 6

   Serve without delay

   Taste for the balance already built into the White Wine Sauce (No. 111), the wine reduction, and the tarragon vinegar. The finished Sauce Vénitienne should be bright but not sour, smooth but not heavy, and green enough to announce the herbs without resembling paint. Spoon it generously over poached sole, turbot, pike, or another firm white fish, and send it to the table while the gloss is alive. À table!

Chef Tips

• •Tarragon vinegar is not ordinary white vinegar with a decorative leaf in the bottle. Choose one that smells clearly of tarragon and has a clean wine-vinegar acidity; harsh distilled vinegar will dominate the finished sauce.
• •The body comes from the finished White Wine Sauce (No. 111), so it must be smooth before it enters the reduction. Real butter gives the sauce its sheen and its soft finish. We don't apologize for butter.
• •Herb Juice (No. 183) supplies color as well as flavor. Add it gradually because its strength changes with the herbs and how thoroughly they were pressed; sufficient means enough to green the sauce without thinning it.
• •Fresh chervil matters here. Parsley alone brings color but not chervil's gentle anise note, and the sauce loses part of its intended perfume.
• •Serve Sauce Vénitienne with gently poached fish whose flesh stays mild enough to carry the herbs. A dry, mineral white wine works beside it, and the bottle used in the reduction is the sensible place to begin.

Advance Preparation

• •The shallot, wine, vinegar, and chervil reduction can be made up to one day ahead. Cool it, cover it, and keep it cold, then return it to a simmer before adding the White Wine Sauce (No. 111).
• •Prepare the White Wine Sauce (No. 111) and Herb Juice (No. 183) according to their own entries before beginning. They remain finished components here; making them inline would turn one sauce into a day at the sauce station.
• •Finish with Herb Juice (No. 183), chervil, and tarragon shortly before serving. If the sauce must wait, hold it for no more than 20 minutes over barely warm water and stir frequently; prolonged heat dulls the herbs and can loosen the emulsion.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 60g)