Aioli is a Mediterranean garlic sauce. Garlic sauce Garlic sauce with bread

When the territory of France was limited to the lands around the Seine, and Languedoc, Provence and Aquitaine were independent states, the northerners contemptuously called the southerners “people of olive oil and garlic.” These two products were used very often in Mediterranean cuisine. And in their classic combination, without any impurities (salt and lemon juice don't count), they gave birth to aioli sauce. It's hard to say who invented this seasoning. It appeared on the territory of the Roman Empire many centuries ago. The name aïoli is French. But in fact it is a copy of the Occitan aioli or Catalan allioli, which simply means “garlic and olive oil.” And aioli appeared long before its famous relative from the city of Mahon (Balearic Islands), mayonnaise. But the sauces look similar. What is the difference and how to prepare aioli at home, we will tell you in this article.

Cooking principle

The name of the sauce hides its composition. It's pretty sparse. It originally consisted of just two ingredients - garlic and olive oil. But how can a liquid become a thick sauce? This is the property of vegetable oil - when whipped, it turns into a fine emulsion. And this is similar to aioli and mayonnaise. In the second sauce, the egg yolk is first beaten, and then vegetable oil is added to it drop by drop. The mixture is constantly whisked to form a thick emulsion. Aioli sauce is prepared in a similar way. But instead of yolk, it contains crushed garlic. And a fair amount of it. Due to their popularity, both sauces have acquired variations of the classic recipe. Sometimes garlic is added to mayonnaise for taste. And in some regions of the northern Mediterranean, aioli is supplemented with yolk (or white, and sometimes egg). For taste, salt, lemon juice, spices and herbs are added to the emulsion.

The recipe for this ancient sauce does not require any complicated kitchen equipment. All you need is a mortar and pestle. We take the components by eye. First, peel and finely chop five to six cloves of garlic. Put them in a mortar and start grinding them with a pinch of salt. The garlic will soon release some juice. Push further until the salt dissolves. Now add - but only drop by drop - olive oil. We continue to rub - always in the same direction (for example, clockwise), first slowly, then faster and faster. A culinary miracle should happen - the liquid will turn into a thick emulsion. Then you can add oil in larger portions. If an unfortunate incident occurs and the emulsion becomes liquid again, do not be upset. Place it in a cup and add a few more cloves of garlic to the mortar. But now pour in the aioli that has become too thin, drop by drop. The classic recipe does not require any more ingredients.

Variations

Aioli is very popular and loved by people along the entire northern coast of the Mediterranean Sea - from Italy to Spain. Therefore, it is not surprising that the original ancient recipe is modified depending on the region. In Catalonia, mashed pears are added to aioli sauce. The recipe from the island of Malta calls for ingredients such as crushed biscuits and tomatoes in the dressing. In other countries, mustard is added to the aioli. We have already mentioned that they often create a sauce similar to mayonnaise. The addition of lecithin, found in egg yolks, makes it easier to create an emulsion. But all these additional ingredients are introduced at the last stage, as flavoring additives into the finished dish.

Feeding method

Aioli sauce, like mayonnaise, should not be heated as it may separate. In Catalonia, it is used to season grilled lamb. Separately, in a bowl, the sauce is served with paella and some tapas (snacks). In the South of France, aioli accompanies fish dishes. A classic of the genre: bouillabaisse (fish soup), served with buttered croutons and garlic sauce in separate plates. And in Provence, aioli completely turned into an independent dish. It's called Le Grand Aïoli. These are boiled cod and vegetables. The dish usually includes potatoes, carrots and green beans. Hard-boiled and chopped eggs are also added to le grande aioli. Naturally, this dish is served under a thick “cap” of garlic sauce. Since the nineteenth century, the North of France has reconsidered its attitude towards aioli. There it is customary to serve it with seafood: assorted shrimp, shrimp or snails. The basic rule to remember is: the fattier the fish, the more garlic and lemon juice the gravy should contain.

What if you don't have a stone pestle and mortar in your kitchen? And is it possible to speed up the process of making aioli? After all, modern people are too busy to devote an hour to gradually adding olive oil to garlic. Kitchen devices come to our aid. And first of all, a blender. In it you will grind five cloves of garlic into a puree. Now it's the turn of another kitchen assistant - an electric mixer. But to make the aioli sauce an emulsion, add three egg yolks to the garlic puree with salt. They will help further break down the dense oil into tiny droplets. Beat at high speed until smooth. With the mixer running, add olive oil. When the sauce becomes thick, season it with lemon juice and, if you wish, other flavorings. Place the finished dish in the refrigerator for a quarter of an hour.

Ideas for Aioli Variations

Each new ingredient will sparkle with new facets of taste. Try adding a little black allspice to the aioli sauce (classic recipe). Or replace lemon juice with lime juice. For lovers of a spicy taste, you can literally pour three drops of Tabasco sauce into the prepared aioli. You can also add avocado, pear or apple puree to the dressing.

Popular not only in Italy but also in other countries surrounding the Mediterranean, aioli is an emulsion of olive oil flavored with lemon juice and plenty of garlic.Garlic- this is the main ingredient of this sauce, after tasting it you will forever remember the incredibly exciting taste, and it is also believed that it serves as an effective remedy against vampires. One of the most famous sauces in the world,aioliproduced throughout the Mediterranean. Let's prepare a dish of green beans with aioli sauce, adhering to all the canons of the classic recipe.

Peel the garlic and place it in a mortar.

Grind the garlic cloves until smooth with a little salt.

Are you interested in quantity? One large head of garlic per two cups of oil, plus an egg yolk or even a whole egg.

To emphasize the centuries-old age of the recipe, we use a 16th-century stone mortar with a boxwood pestle.

Add one egg yolk (or whole egg)...

And slowly, slowly we rub...

Until a homogeneous mass is obtained. It should be noted that in some regions, such as the southeast coast of Spain, there are sauce recipes, which do not involve adding egg yolk or water, just vegetable olive oil (don't use extravirgin or your garlic will simply be overwhelmed by the taste of the oil), garlic and salt. The cooking process takes longer because the garlic must be juiced before adding oil, although it can be sped up a bit by using lemon juice. It is allowed to add milk or water in small quantities, but in any case there should be much more butter. Without the egg emulsifier, the aioli will not be as soft, but will have a pronounced garlic pungency.

Now for the delicate part. We use a garlic-egg mixture to emulsify the butter. Emulsification means mixing two substances, which themselves do not mix, with the help of some agent. We use egg yolk as an emulsifier. We need to get millions of tiny droplets of oil that mix with water - oil-in-water. If we just mix two cups of oil with an egg, we end up with a water-in-oil version, which doesn't look as pretty.

We begin to add oil to the egg in a small stream and beat gently with a whisk.

We will get the best result with a properly selected whisk; it’s time to put the pestle aside. Continue adding oil gradually, whisking constantly.

Add lemon juice and tone the taste with a pinch of white pepper.

Wooden tools, a boxwood pestle and a manual olive oil squeezer made from lemon wood are great and stylish, but you can just as easily use modern kitchen appliances made of plastic and metal. The aioli sauce will be white and tasty. In fact, in the process of preparing the sauce, we ourselves had to resort to using an electric mixer to get the mixture to the desired consistency. We don't know how aioli looked like it in the 16th century, but our ancestors probably had to expend much more physical effort to bring it to the desired condition.

If your aioli isn't thickening, there's a way to help it. Take a small amount of the sauce in a small container and place it in a “water bath”, a pan with plenty of hot water, stirring constantly, once it begins to thicken to mayonnaise, pour in the remaining aioli, whisking constantly. Of course, with an electric mixer everything will turn out much faster.

There are a thousand and one how to use aioli, the simplest is to apply it to a piece of bread. But let's make a traditional seasonal Mediterranean recipe to illustrate another easy option.

Wash and trim the pods of fresh green beans; if you don't grow your own, you can buy a fresh frozen version at any store.

Boil to taste in lightly salted water with a dash of baking soda to preserve the green color and serve with aioli and toasted bread. This dish is not only tasty, but also extremely healthy, especially in the prevention of cancer.

Aioli is also good with rice, potatoes, shrimp, fish...

Aioli(French aïoli or all-i-oli, which translates as “garlic-and-olive oil”) - traditional french sauce, which is made from olive oil and garlic.

In different variations of the recipe, an egg (or just the yolk, or just the white), water, mustard, lemon juice and even a pear are also added to the sauce. The ingredients included in its composition give aioli a bright and rich aroma.

Traditional recipe

In Mediterranean cuisine, aioli is traditionally served with seafood, fish soups and croutons. Sometimes lemon juice and mustard are added to it; in Catalan cuisine, Aioli is consumed along with grilled lamb and vegetables, as well as paella. In Malta, tomatoes or biscuits crumbs are added to the classic aioli composition. The sauce is usually served at room temperature.

In Provence, aioli (Le Grand Aïoli) is also called an independent dish, which consists of boiled vegetables (potatoes, carrots and beans are most often used), fish (soaked salted or fresh cod) and eggs and aioli sauce.

In general, all recipes for Aioli sauce are identical and are based on the basic, classic one: a paste of garlic grated with salt, whipped with olive oil, yolk and lemon juice. Depending on the version of the sauce, the main components can be supplemented or replaced, and eggs can be completely excluded.

Traditionally, garlic Aioli sauce is usually served with fish soups, seafood and croutons. It is complemented with fresh vegetables or fried meat and fish dishes, paella; a great idea is to use it as a dressing for vegetable salads. Aioli sauce is a versatile homemade mayonnaise with garlic.

Aioli sauce - general principles of preparation

The basis of the Mediterranean sauce is garlic crushed with salt. Grinding options using a grater or a press are completely excluded, since uniformity is one of the basic rules. The best device for these purposes would be a mortar or a monolithic metal masher. By chopping garlic with a blender, you can also achieve the desired result if you use maximum speed.
The sauce is prepared simply - continuous whisking of the garlic base with gradual addition of oil and no boiling. The main thing is to introduce vegetable fat correctly so that the finished sauce does not separate. The oil must be added gradually, literally drop by drop, without stopping whisking the base. A new portion should not be added until the mixture has been thoroughly beaten after the previous addition. There is no need to rush; the amount of added fat should be increased gradually. Start adding as thin a stream as possible after half the amount specified in the recipe has gone.
It is best to whisk the sauce, but not everyone can withstand the long process, so when preparing Aioli, they use kitchen appliances. Beating at medium speeds with a mixer or immersion blender simplifies the process and significantly saves time.
Lemon juice or vinegar, like oil, should be added gradually, constantly taking a sample. This will allow you to stop in time and not over-acidify the gas station. Alternatively, initially add a little more than half, and the remaining amount is already in the process, after taking the sample.
You should not prepare a lot of sauce at once. Try to use it immediately; only short-term storage in the refrigerator is allowed - no more than two days.

Classic recipe for Aioli sauce on yolks with lemon juice

Ingredients:

five cloves of garlic,
250 ml olive oil,
1 egg yolk,
1 tablespoon lemon juice
salt to taste.

Cooking method:

All ingredients should be at room temperature. This is one of the most important rules for preparing this sauce.

First you need to peel the garlic and chop it, and then grind it in a mortar until it becomes a homogeneous paste. You can use a blender for this purpose. Next, you need to add the yolk and oil (drop by drop) and mix everything thoroughly with a mixer. When the sauce thickens, you can pour in the oil in a thin stream. At the very end, lemon juice and salt are added.

The sauce should be the same thickness as good mayonnaise or sour cream. If it comes out too thick, add a small amount of water and lightly beat again.

Aioli sauce can be served with meat, fish, vegetables, vegetable salads, eggs, and it can also be used to flavor sandwiches.

Sauce used always chilled. Therefore, before using the finished sauce, you should keep it in the refrigerator for at least 10-15 minutes.

Catalan aioli with pear

The aioli sauce with pear is a real revelation. Delicate and refined taste with a light fruity aroma and garlicky spiciness. Pear aioli sauce is the perfect accompaniment.

Ingredients:

1 large conference pear,
1 tsp Sahara,
120 ml olive oil,
2 tbsp. apple cider vinegar,
one head of garlic
salt to taste.

Cooking method:

Cut the pear into large cubes and blanch in sweet water for several minutes.
Lightly peel the head of garlic and cut off the top cap. Then wrap it in foil and bake in the oven for about 20 minutes at 180°C.
Remove the pear pieces, drain, then add the baked garlic cloves and other ingredients.
Blend everything thoroughly with a blender until smooth.

The key ingredient in the aioli sauce in this composition is sweet pear. As an experiment, you can try replacing it with peaches or quince.

Almond aioli

This is a version of a delicate sauce with a distinct nutty taste. Unlike, almonds give the sauce a brighter nutty taste and aroma. The recipe uses balsamic vinegar, but it is quite acceptable to replace it with freshly squeezed lemon juice or table vinegar.

Ingredients:

– two tablespoons;
120 ml of quality oil;
three large cloves of “sharp” garlic;
raw egg;
a handful of peeled almonds;
a small pinch of salt

Cooking method:

Peel the almonds and garlic and chop with a knife.
Combine, add an egg and a small pinch of salt, beat thoroughly with a blender.
Pour vinegar into the resulting mass and, continuing to work with the blender, add olive oil in a thin stream.
Do not use maximum speed, beat at low speed and do it for more time so that the sauce does not separate, but mixes evenly, acquiring a light yellow tint.

Mustard Aioli Sauce

You can use any mustard, either spicy or milder Dijon. It all depends on what kind of taste you want – sharp or softer.

Ingredients:

olive oil – 1+1/2 cups;
raw yolks from two eggs;
garlic;
a spoonful of fresh lemon juice;
mustard - “Dijon” or spicy “Russian”.

Cooking method:

Finely chop three large cloves of garlic, put them in a mortar, add salt and grind thoroughly. A homogeneous paste should form.
Wash the eggs in warm water and soda. After breaking, carefully pour the whites into a separate container, and add the yolks to the garlic. No protein needed.
Strain the lemon juice, measure out a tablespoon and add to the yolks. Lightly whisk and mix all ingredients until smooth.
Without stopping whipping and adding in small parts, add all the oil. Then add the mustard and beat thoroughly again.

Aioli sauce with walnuts

When preparing nut sauce, you cannot do without a mortar and the process itself will take more time. Dense walnut kernels must be thoroughly ground with garlic so that the nut-garlic base has a porridge-like consistency.

Ingredients:

a tablespoon of chopped dill;
30 ml highly purified vegetable oil;
two tablespoons of finely chopped walnuts;
half a lemon;
garlic head.

Cooking method:

We peel the garlic from films, press three medium-sized cloves into a mortar with a press. Add finely chopped nuts and grind thoroughly with a pestle.
Leave the scalded lemon in hot water. After waiting for about a minute, take it out, cut it and squeeze out the juice. After filtering through cheesecloth, measure out exactly a tablespoon.
Add salt and a little ground pepper to the pasty nut-garlic mass, pour a spoonful of juice and, without ceasing to grind, gradually add all the oil.
Mix the finished sauce with chopped fresh dill.

Aioli sauce with basil and bread

A universal recipe, the sauce will perfectly complement any dish. An unusual solution is to use stale bread for the base. The crumb is soaked in milk, after which it is blended with yolk and fresh basil until smooth.

Ingredients:

a handful of fresh basil leaves;
half a glass of milk;
garlic;
one yolk;
125 ml frozen sunflower oil;
olive oil – 125 ml;
two small slices of bread, stale and slightly dry.

Cooking method:

Soak the bread crumb in milk.
In a mortar, adding half a spoonful of salt, grind three cloves of garlic into the pulp.
Squeeze the soaked crumb well, add garlic pulp and basil torn into small pieces.
Add a little ground pepper, yolk and mix everything well with a blender until it forms a paste.
If the mass is too thick, add a little milk left over from soaking the bread.
While whipping the base prepared for the sauce, slowly add oil in a thin stream. Continue beating until we get a homogeneous mass.

Easy Homemade Aioli Recipe

Ingredients:

large egg;
three teaspoons of fresh lemon juice;
one and a half teaspoons of hot mustard;
a third of a spoon of fine salt;
garlic;
a glass of vegetable oil, ideally olive oil.

Cooking method:

Pour an egg, kept warm for at least an hour, into a clean, certainly dry, glass of blender. We act carefully so that the yolk remains intact.
Pour all the oil and lemon juice on top. Add mustard and salt. Place the whisk of the blender directly on the yolk and begin whisking. At this stage we do not move the blender.
When the mass thickens enough, raise and lower the device several times, without stopping whisking, to achieve homogeneity.
The thickness depends on the amount of oil used - the more oil, the thicker the sauce.
Add at least three cloves of garlic, crushed in a mortar, into the finished sauce and mix thoroughly.
For a richer garlic taste, let the sauce steep for about three hours.

Expensive olive oil is replaceable with high-quality sunflower oil. You can make a sauce using a mixture of these two fats - the quality and taste will not suffer at all from this.
If yolks are added to the sauce, the eggs should be taken out of the refrigerator in advance and warmed to room temperature. This also applies to other products; they should all be at the same temperature. Cold ingredients are difficult to whip up, and different temperatures can cause the finished sauce to separate.
If you wish, you can experiment with the composition of any sauce - add your favorite spices and spices when whisking.

What to serve with?

Aioli sauce is perhaps one of the most versatile, basic additions to a main dish. It can be served with the following dishes.

Vegetables, such as fresh, thinly sliced or julienned, are ideal as a snack. You can also dress salads. And in French Provence, aioli is traditionally served with boiled vegetables, fish and eggs.

To the seafood. The rich garlic flavor best complements the tender meat. Absolutely anything will do, but French chefs especially recommend it for white sea fish with firm flesh (for example, cod, perch). It should be boiled or stewed. An assortment of seafood with a small bowl of aromatic sauce is also popular, and in Spain they eat paella with it.
For meat baked in the oven or grilled, along with vegetables.

Be sure to prepare the aioli sauce. You can take the traditional recipe or with pear, which, by the way, can easily be replaced with quince, with almonds, tomatoes, herbs, dried red peppers and the like. Experiment and find your ideal taste.

Garlic sauce is one of the most versatile. It goes well with any dish, be it fish, meat, poultry, pasta, rice, potatoes or other vegetables. It is used hot as a gravy or cold. It can be spread on bread. It is used to dress salads and marinate fish and meat in it. Of course, recipes for garlic sauce vary depending on its purpose, but none of them are complex or require lengthy preparation. Garlic sauce can be eaten all year round, and even an inexperienced cook can make it.

Cooking features

When preparing garlic sauce, it is important to know only a few rules, and then it will come out not only aromatic, but also tasty and beautiful.

Boiled garlic has a specific taste and aroma, loses some of its properties, so it is not used for sauce - you need fresh garlic. If the sauce is being made on the stove, add the garlic last. To give the sauce a characteristic aroma, some recipes call for frying the garlic.
For the sauce, it is better to use young garlic; old garlic has a slightly different taste and aroma.
You can chop garlic for sauce in different ways. The easiest way is to use a hand press, but in this case the structure of the garlic mass will be rough. The thinnest consistency can be obtained using a blender. Some recipes call for grinding the garlic in a mortar along with other spices.
Garlic sauce needs to be given time to brew, then it turns out to be the most delicious and aromatic.
Recipes indicate the approximate amount of garlic; you can reduce or increase it to your taste.

The shelf life of garlic sauce depends on what ingredients are used in the recipe. If the composition includes sour cream, cream, eggs, then the sauce can be stored for no more than two days. Butter-based sauce can be stored much longer; it can even be prepared for the winter.

Tomato-garlic sauce on broth

Calorie content of the dish: 508 kcal, per 100 g: 113 kcal.

tomato paste – 40 ml;
tomato – 150 g;
garlic – 5 cloves;
fresh parsley – 50 g;
fresh dill – 50 g;
vegetable oil – 40 ml;
broth – 100 ml.

Cooking method:

Finely chop three cloves of garlic, crush the remaining garlic with a special press.
Finely chop the greens and crush them with a little salt and garlic passed through a press. If desired, you can add a little pepper or other spices to taste.
Heat the oil using half the amount specified in the recipe and fry the chopped garlic in it. There is no need to fry for a long time, 3-4 minutes is enough.
Remove the fried garlic and add tomato paste to the pan and fry it for a couple of minutes in garlic oil.
Pour in the broth, stir it with the tomato paste and boil the sauce for 2-3 minutes.
Pour boiling water over the tomato and peel off the skin. Cut off the seal near the stalk and remove the seeds. Cut the pulp into small cubes.
Fry the fresh tomato in a separate frying pan in the remaining oil for 5 minutes, mix with tomato paste and broth.
Add the spicy mixture with fresh garlic, stir, remove from heat. Pour the sauce into a gravy boat and cool or use hot as a gravy.

Garlic-tomato sauce goes best with meat. It is also served with poultry dishes.

Garlic sauce with sour cream

Calorie content of the dish: 345 kcal, per 100 g: 87 kcal.

sour cream – 0.25 l;
lemon – 0.25 pcs.;
garlic – 3 cloves;
fresh cilantro – 50 g;
fresh parsley – 50 g;
salt, pepper - to taste.

Cooking method:

Grind the garlic with a blender or using a press.
Wash the greens, dry them, chop finely with a knife.
Mix garlic and herbs with sour cream. Beat with a whisk or mixer.
Squeeze the juice from a quarter of a lemon into the sauce. Add salt and pepper to taste. Stir again.

Sour cream sauce is served cold. It can be used as a salad dressing. This recipe is especially popular in the Caucasus. Sour cream can be replaced with other fermented milk products. You can also add greens depending on your taste. If desired, some of the sour cream can be replaced with mayonnaise - in this case the sauce will acquire a more piquant taste.

Garlic cream sauce

Calorie content of the dish: 3569 kcal, per 100 g: 373 kcal.

olive oil – 40 ml;
garlic – 7 cloves;
butter – 60 g;
high fat cream – 0.6 l;
wheat flour – 100 g;
broth – 30 ml;
hard cheese – 100 g;
salt, pepper - to taste.

Cooking method:

Mix the broth with cream.
Finely grate the cheese.
Cut the garlic into small pieces, place in a mortar along with salt and pepper, crush them well.
Lightly fry the garlic in plenty of olive oil.
Melt the butter in a clean frying pan and fry the flour in it.
Pour the cream into the pan with the flour, whisking constantly to avoid lumps. If you still get lumps, then the mixture will have to be rubbed through a sieve and only then continue preparing the garlic sauce.
When the cream begins to thicken, add fried garlic and stir thoroughly.
Remove the sauce from the heat, add the grated cheese and stir vigorously.
Leave the sauce to steep for half an hour. Whisk it occasionally to prevent uneven thickening and clumps.
After the specified time, put the sauce in the refrigerator. To prevent it from becoming covered with a film, its surface can be greased with a piece of butter.

Creamy garlic sauce is served cold with meat and fish. But it can also be used hot when preparing pasta or pizza.

Garlic egg sauce

Calorie content of the dish: 1293 kcal, per 100 g: 275 kcal.

chicken eggs – 4 pcs.;
olive oil – 100 ml;
lemon – 1 pc.;
garlic – 5 cloves;
salt, pepper - to taste.

Cooking method:

Wash the eggs thoroughly using soap and a sponge.
Boil two eggs, peel, remove the yolks and mash them with a fork.
Break the remaining eggs, separating the yolks from the whites. The whites are not required, but the raw yolks must be whisked, combining them with the boiled yolks.
Squeeze the juice out of the lemon.
Mix olive oil and lemon juice.
Heat them in a water bath and beat them, combining them with chicken yolks.
Grind the garlic in a blender and add to the main mixture. Salt and pepper it. After whisking well, remove from the water bath.

Garlic-egg sauce is typical for Balkan and Mediterranean cuisine. It is served cold with meat, poultry, and fish.

Garlic sauce with bread

Calorie content of the dish: 1704 kcal, per 100 g: 299 kcal.

wheat bread – 0.3 kg;
lemon – 1 pc.;
garlic – 10 cloves;
vegetable oil – 100 ml;
salt, ground pepper - to taste.

Cooking method:

Cut the bread into thin slices, salt and pepper.
Grind the garlic using a blender or passing it through a special press. Spread it on slices of bread.
Place the slices on a baking sheet.
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees and place a baking sheet with bread in it.
Dry the bread. The time depends on how thinly your bread is sliced. The main thing is that it becomes completely dry.
Break the bread into pieces and use a blender to grind it into crumbs.
After washing and drying the lemon, grate a spoonful of zest and mix it with bread crumbs.