The capricciosa sauce is an easy and fairly quick condiment, ideal for accompanying, filling, and adding an extra touch to appetizers, meats, fish, fried foods, sandwiches, flatbreads, eggs, cold cuts, raw or boiled vegetables (cabbage tops, celery stalks, tomatoes, and whatever our imagination suggests). It contains neither gluten nor lactose. It should be prepared in advance, at least a day before, to be enjoyed at its best. It is never missing from my Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve table and disappears immediately to my great satisfaction; I also prepare it for dinners and buffets. This is my personal revisitation of the much more famous “capricciosa salad”. The capricciosa sauce was born from a mistake in the procedure of the original recipe given to me by a dear friend, but the result was so liked that since then I’ve always prepared it this way.
- Difficulty: Very easy
- Cost: Inexpensive
- Rest time: 1 Day
- Preparation time: 20 Minutes
- Portions: 10
- Cooking methods: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: All seasons
Ingredients
- 1 cup mayonnaise
- 10.5 oz pickled vegetables
- 2.8 oz tuna in water (or in oil)
- 2 fillets anchovies in oil
- 3.5 oz boiled potatoes
- 1 boiled carrot
- 2.1 oz peas, canned (drained and rinsed)
- 10 pitted green olives
Tools
- 1 Blender / Mixer
Steps
We begin by boiling the potato with the skin (well washed) and the carrot together. They should be perfectly cooked and very soft. Let them cool slightly; then, after peeling the potato, pass both vegetables twice through a potato ricer; the capricciosa sauce will gain in creaminess.
The boiled potato and carrot, added to the sauce, help to soften both the acidity of the pickled vegetables and the strong saltiness of the anchovies and tuna.
Meanwhile, drain the pickled vegetables, rinse them under running water and let them drain in a strainer.
Prepare a refrigerator container with a lid to store the sauce. You can also store it in two sterilized jars with lids (perhaps reusing the mayonnaise and pickle jars).
Finely chop only half of the pickles and put them in the chosen container for the capricciosa sauce.
In a bowl, instead, combine the other half of the pickles, the tuna, anchovy fillets, half of the peas, half of the pitted olives, and 2-3 generous tablespoons of mayonnaise.
Using an immersion blender or a traditional blender, mix everything until you obtain a soft cream; only at the end add the potato and carrot puree that you will mix with the cream.
Do not blend the potato puree, or the simply boiled potato, with the rest of the ingredients, as the cream would acquire a sticky and unpalatable consistency.
Transfer the resulting cream into the container and mix it with the chopped pickles and the rest of the mayonnaise. Finally, decorate the surface of the capricciosa sauce with pieces of pickled carrot and the remaining peas and olives.
Place the capricciosa sauce in the fridge and let it rest and absorb the flavors for at least a day (although it’s difficult, at least for me, to resist the temptation to keep tasting it).
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An extra idea. Wash and gently dry the leaves of a Belgian endive. Arrange them on a serving platter and fill them with a bit of capricciosa sauce, leaving part of the leaf free to allow diners to hold it like a spoon and enjoy it without difficulty. You can create a flavorful and beautiful appetizer by arranging the endive leaves in an artistic way. Each guest can serve themselves.
