Vierge is a French sauce or condiment made from chopped tomatoes, lemon juice (or vinegar), chopped basil and garlic. The term “vierge” literally means virgin, because the ingredients in this sauce are allowed to macerate but are never actually cooked (classically speaking).
I first fell in love with this sauce when it was introduced to me at La Folie when I was working as an extern. Although most vierge is not blended together and emulsified, this is how they did it a La Folie, and it is how I continue to make my vierge today. The emulsification of the water from the tomato and vinegar being joined with the oil, gives you a beautiful mouth feel and a shiny, silky appearance.
At La Folie we would quarter the tomatoes and deseed them first. The inner seeds and flesh of the tomatoes contained too much water, making the emulsifying process more difficult.
When I later discovered the emulsifying properties of Xanthan Gum, I started to keep the tomato innards intact because they offer lots of great flavor. Using Xanthan Gum as an emulsifier when making vierge also gives you more freedom as to the initial flavor bases you use to make your emulsion. It will also stabilize the emulsion, allowing you to hold it for a few days; discarding it only in the name of freshness.
How To Make Vierge
You Will Need:
- One Tomato, quartered. Here I’m using a Brandy Wine Yellow heirloom tomato. When blended with the basil leaves the finished color is a beautiful neon yellow.
- 3-4 large basil leaves.
- 3 cloves of raw garlic.
- 3 shallots sliced.
- A couple tablespoons of some good vinegar; sherry and thyme are my personal favorites.
- Canola oil, about 2-3 cups.
- Xanthan Gum to aid emulsification, (optional).
Start by combining quartered tomatoes with shallots, garlic, basil and vinegar. If you are not using Xanthan Gum, deseed the tomatoes to reduce water content.
- Add in Xanthan Gum and a little water if necessary to puree ingredients into a watery consistency.
- Slowly stream in canola oil, and continue to stream until it thickens to desired consistency.
- As the vierge gets thicker and thicker, the hole made in the center of the blender by the spinning blades will start to close in on itself. This is a good visual guide as to how thick your vierge is getting.
- Finish by passing through a chinois (fine conical strainer), and refrigerate until ready to serve.
Further Information
- Heirloom Tomato Napoleon – See an example of this vierge used on a heirloom tomato napoleon.
- Where to buy Xanthan Gum
- Vita Mix Blender – The best blender on the market and an industry standard.
- Note: Although this technique used tomatoes, you can make any number of different emulsions using this method. Some ideas for other forms of vierge would be beet, ginger, and any number of fruits such as peaches and plums. You are only limited by your own imagination.
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Random tomato question – when should you seed a tomato and when is it unnecessary to do so? Confused. I was making bruschetta the other day and wondered if I should be seeding them (I don’t when it’s just the fam, but probably would for a party or something). Am I committing some egregious tomato sin I’m not aware of?
@ Mommycook,
You should usually seed a tomato when it will be a topping for something where you do not want excess juice. Brushetta would be a good example, because the excess juice could cause your toasted bread to become soggy. So, for a rule of thumb, seed tomatoes when they are a topping and garnish, leave the seeds in when using them for a salsa or sauce.
Other than that, just follow your own personal taste preferences and you’ll be fine.
Jacob,
Your product link recommendation for Xanthan Gum is a product that costs $96 — a bit expensive for the home cook. What’ s the difference between this product and something less expensive like Bob’s Red Mill Xanthan Gum? I’ve also seen small amounts on Amazon for about $1 per ounce. Would it be disadvantageous to use these lesser expensive products?
@ Michael,
The reason why I link to that gum in particular is because it’s a personal recommendation from me. Although I’ve used other brands of Xanthan Gum, none of them are quite as pure, and can sometimes lead to a gummy, pudding like texture. You can definitely play around with other brands, I just don’t feel comfortable recommending them. Remember too, when using Xanthan Gum you use such small amounts that it will last you for a really long time.
Hi there, Jacob!
First off, let me congratulate you for this website! It’s a real find!
My question resides on the use of shallots… Every chef uses shallots abundantly instead of regular onions. I understand that shallots add a more refined taste to the recipe, but where I live (Portugal), shallots are just to expensive to use on a daily basis… Is there anything I can do to the onions to emulate shallots?
Thank you, and keep up the great work!
The closest thing to shallots that I can think of is red onion. Sweet yellow onion will also work but is a little sharp for raw applications.
How would you recommend using this sauce?