Before you even ask, I’ll come clean. Yes, I do own a tub of “Italian herbs” myself.
To be honest, though, I’m something of a seasonings libertarian ― I’ve never understood how people trusted a stranger to find the perfect mix of flavours for every dish.
So, I’m not surprised food site My Recipes says the invention of the generic “Italian herbs” mix is likely American, adding that you’d be “hard-pressed” to find an equivalent in Italy.
Eva Santaguida, cookbook author and the Italian half of YouTube couple Pasta Grammar, seemed baffled by the concept in a video about the topic. “They put everything together without a defined taste,” she said of the mix.
One version is native to Italy, however; and it sounds delicious.
What is it?
“Salamoia Bolognese, a blend of rosemary, sage, garlic, salt, and black pepper, is popular in Bologna and beyond,” My Recipe says.
Italian restaurateur and celeb chef Massimo Capra seems to confirm that.
In a TikTok, he sniffed a metal container of the stuff ― “smells like a roasted chicken,” he said between whiffs.
“It smells like roast veal,”Capra added, writing in the caption of his video that “it’s something you need in your pantry right now”.
It’s used on grilled meat, fish, vegetables, and (obviously) veal and chicken; Italian food YouTuber Janna’s Cooking Show used it in her chicken marsala recipe.
It also makes soups, stews, and spuds sing (perhaps reassuringly, if inconveniently, most of the recipes I saw for it online were in Italian).
How do I make it?
It’s pretty simple, though as with all seasoning mixes, there’s no one true recipe.
Slow food cooking site Hare & Tortoise suggests mixing equal parts salt and rosemary with one clove of garlic per two teaspoons of salt or rosemary; there’s one teaspoon of black peppercorns per two teaspoons, or one clove, of the rest.
They whizz the lot up in a blender.
Italian cooking site Il Cucchiano D’Argento’s more complex affair puts sage, bay leaves, and lemon zest in their “easy” recipe too.
Their large-scale recipe uses 1kg of salt, the zest of two unwaxed lemons (though they admit these aren’t “traditional”), half a head of garlic, five sage leaves, four bay leaves, three sprigs of rosemary, and 45g (ish) of black peppercorns.
“The [herb’s] oils released are absorbed by the salt, [which is] left to dry... for a couple of days: a process that guarantees its shelf life for a few months,” the cooking site adds.
They say the final product’s texture should be halfway between coarse and fine salt. You can store it in an airtight glass jar when it’s done.
BRB, just taking out my blender...