Persillesovs

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Heavy-bottomed saucepan, 1.5 litre
• •Whisk
• •Wooden spoon
• •Fine sieve (in case of lumps)

Instructions

1. 1

   Chop the parsley

   Wash and dry the parsley thoroughly. Strip the leaves from the stems and chop them finely with a sharp knife. You want the pieces small enough that they disappear into the sauce as green flecks, not so coarse that you're chewing leaf. A full bunch looks like too much on the board. It isn't. The sauce needs all of it. Set the chopped parsley aside. It goes in at the very end.

   Flat-leaf parsley, not curly. Flat-leaf has a cleaner, more rounded flavor that belongs in a warm sauce. Curly parsley tastes faintly of grass and is better left as decoration on someone else's plate.
2. 2

   Cook the roux

   Melt the butter in a heavy saucepan over medium-low heat. When it foams, add all the flour at once and stir it in with a wooden spoon. Keep stirring. The flour and butter will come together into a thick, smooth paste. Cook this roux for two full minutes, stirring constantly. You want the raw flour taste to disappear, but the color to stay pale, blond, not brown. If it starts to turn golden, pull the pan off the heat. A white sauce needs a white roux. That's the rule, and it exists because a browned roux tastes of hazelnuts and changes the character of the sauce entirely.

   Listen to the roux. At first it sizzles and bubbles. After two minutes it calms and the bubbles become smaller and more even. That's when it's cooked through.
3. 3

   Add the milk gradually

   Take the pan off the heat. Pour in about a quarter of the milk and whisk vigorously. The roux will seize up and turn into a thick paste. That's exactly right. Keep whisking until the paste is smooth and there are no lumps. Return the pan to medium-low heat and add the rest of the milk in three additions, whisking well between each one. The reason you add the milk in stages is simple: a small amount of liquid mixes into a thick paste without lumps. A large amount of liquid poured into a roux turns into a lumpy disaster that no amount of whisking can fully rescue.

   Room temperature milk blends more smoothly into the roux than cold milk. If you forgot to take the milk out, warm it gently in a separate pan first. The thirty seconds this takes will save you five minutes of fighting lumps.
4. 4

   Simmer until it coats

   Bring the sauce to a gentle simmer, stirring frequently with the whisk. Let it cook for five to seven minutes at this low bubble. The sauce will thicken as the flour cooks and the starch swells. You'll know when it's right: dip a spoon in and run your finger across the back. If the line holds and the sauce doesn't run back together, it's done. It should coat the spoon like thick cream. Too thin, and it will slide off the pork. Too thick, and it sits on the plate like paste. Season now with salt, white pepper, and a small grating of nutmeg. Taste it. Adjust. The sauce should taste of milk and butter first, with warmth from the pepper and a whisper of nutmeg underneath.

   White pepper, not black. Black pepper leaves dark specks in the sauce that look like dirt. White pepper does its work invisibly. This is a Danish kitchen rule for all white sauces and it's worth following.
5. 5

   Stir in the parsley

   Take the pan off the heat and stir in all the chopped parsley at once. The residual heat of the sauce is enough to soften the herbs slightly without cooking them out. This is the single most important moment in the recipe. If you add the parsley while the sauce is still simmering, the heat turns it dull and army-green and the fresh flavor disappears. Off the heat, the parsley stays bright and vivid and carries its own flavor into every spoonful. Stir it through, look at the color, and you'll understand why the timing matters.

6. 6

   Serve immediately

   Pour the persillesovs into a warm sauceboat or straight over the stegt flaesk and boiled potatoes. Serve at once. The sauce thickens as it sits, so if it waits on the counter, whisk in a splash of warm milk to bring it back. This sauce doesn't wait well and it doesn't need to. It takes fifteen minutes. Make it last.

Chef Tips

• •Use a full bunch of parsley, not a timid handful. The sauce should look generously green when you're done. If you're worried you've added too much, you haven't.
• •Real butter makes the roux taste like something. Margarine makes it taste like nothing. This is a three-ingredient sauce, and each one carries weight. Don't compromise on the butter.
• •If lumps happen, and sometimes they do, push the sauce through a fine sieve and return it to the pan. No shame in the sieve. Even experienced cooks use it. The result is the same: a sauce as smooth as cream.
• •Persillesovs wants to be served with stegt flaesk and boiled potatoes, but it's also quietly excellent with poached white fish or simple boiled vegetables. Any time you want warmth and richness without heaviness, this sauce belongs on the table.

Advance Preparation

• •Chop the parsley up to two hours ahead and keep it wrapped in a damp cloth in the fridge. Any earlier and the cut edges darken.
• •The base sauce without parsley can be made up to a day ahead and refrigerated. Reheat gently, whisking in a splash of milk to thin it back, then stir in the freshly chopped parsley off the heat just before serving. The parsley must always be added fresh.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 130g)