Easy sauce recipes for summer meals

It’s funny how we think that sauces are hot in temperature.  Bolognese, hollandaise, marinara, gravy — you get the picture. It’s funny because the most common saucing that we do is with refrigerated or room temperature sauces: ketchup, mayonnaise, all the hot sauces that we drizzle on everything, BBQ sauce and our ever-present salsa scooped up with corn chips. (Guacamole is considered a “sauce” by some, did you know?)

And we Americans are not alone here. (Just not very creative.) Kitchens all over the world pour out sauces for napping on foods both hot and cool and all year round.

Here are short recipes for four sauces that beat the heat in summertime and that pour in from around the globe.

From Belgium, my grandmother’s homemade mayonnaise. She made a small batch by hand nearly every day and used it as mortar for composed salads or slathered on sandwiches or over grilled or sautéed foods. Her grandson used to eat it, spooned out of the jar when she wasn’t looking.

You will find pistou, a basil-based blend that resembles what we know as pesto but without the pine nuts, all over southern France, especially in Provence. There, it enlivens all manner of foods, from a topping for grilled meats and fish, to its most-favored place as a stir-in to soups both hot and cool.

The Spanish adore their summer sauces, such as mojo picón, a spicy red sauce formed from red peppers and edged with the acidity of vinegar, which gives it its piquancy (“picón,” in one meaning), truly what we might call its sauciness.

And Indian cooks just do not sit down to eat sauce-less most anything. They very much enjoy a cooling sauce such as raita, an offset to the chile heat or other pepper-hot flavors in their main dishes. The raita recipe here is in the way of almost any Indian preparation, a layering of flavor on flavor, aroma on aroma.

My Grandmother’s Homemade Mayonnaise

Makes 1/2 to 3/4 cup

Ingredients

• 1 large egg yolk, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 3/4 cup canola, safflower or pure olive oil (not extra virgin “cold-pressed” oil)

Directions

On a room temperature plate, smash and stir the egg with a fork until creamed. Add a tiny amount of oil at a time and blend. Season with lemon juice, salt and pepper.

Pistou

The word “pistou” originates in the Latin “pestare,” “to crush, grind or pound.” Makes about 1/3 cup.

Ingredients

• 4 cloves garlic, peeled
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher or sea salt
• 12 medium-to-large leaves fresh basil, torn up
• 12-15 large leaves flat-leaf (Italian) parsley, de-stemmed
• 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
• 1/2 cup fruity extra virgin olive oil

Directions

Using a mortar and pestle (or mini processor), crush the garlic cloves into a paste or fine mince with the salt. Continue mincing or making a paste by adding the basil, parsley, then grated cheese.

Add the crushed ingredients to a bowl and drizzle in the olive oil, whisking, making a thick emulsion. Stores refrigerated for 1-2 weeks.

Variation: To make a version of Ligurian pesto, add 1/4 cup pine nuts when you add the cheese.

Mojo Picón (Spicy Red Dipping Sauce)

Adapted from “Delicioso! The Regional Cooking of Spain,” by Penelope Casas (Alfred Knopf, 1996). Makes about 1 cup.

Ingredients

• 1 small (below 2 inches in length) dried red Thai chile, seeded
• 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
• 2-3 fresh red Fresno chiles, cored and seeded
• 12 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher or sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds or ground cumin
• 3/4 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves or 1/8 teaspoon dried
• 3/4 teaspoon fresh oregano leaves or 1/8 teaspoon dried
• 1 teaspoon minced fresh flat-leaf parsley
• 1/2 teaspoon imported sweet paprika
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

Directions

Break up the small dried chile and soak the pieces in the red wine vinegar for at least 10 minutes. Meanwhile, using a mortar and pestle or mini-processor, pulverize the Fresno peppers, garlic, salt, cumin, thyme, oregano and parsley, in small batches if necessary.

Remove the pepper from the vinegar, reserving the vinegar, and add the soaked pieces to the mix and process or crush again so that no large pieces remain.

Stir in the paprika, oil and reserved vinegar and mix together well. Stores refrigerated for 1-2 weeks.

Indian Carrot Raita

From “Salt Fat Acid Heat,” by Samin Nosrat (Simon & Schuster, 2017). Makes about 2 cups.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups plain yogurt
• 1 clove garlic, finely grated or pounded with a pinch of salt
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped cilantro leaves and tender stems
• 8 mint leaves, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup coarsely grated carrot
• 2 teaspoons finely grated ginger
• 2 tablespoons ghee or neutral oil
• 1 teaspoon cumin seed
• 1 teaspoon black mustard seed
• 1 teaspoon coriander seed
• Salt

Directions

In a medium-large bowl, combine the yogurt, garlic, parsley, cilantro, mint leaves, carrots and grated ginger with a generous pinch of salt. Stir well and taste and adjust for salt as needed.

In a small frying pan over medium-high heat, melt the ghee or heat the oil. Sizzle the cumin, mustard and coriander seeds for about 30 seconds, or until the first seeds begin to pop.

Pour immediately into the yogurt mixture and stir to combine. Taste and adjust for salt. Cover and chill well before serving.

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter, In The Know, to get entertainment news sent straight to your inbox.