Recipe for a sauce for meat, fish, and salads with just one ingredient

Let’s travel the world through different recipes to expand your culinary repertoire. In this post, I’m sharing an Azerbaijani sauce you can make at home. It’s simple, requires just one ingredient, and transforms the flavor of your dishes.

The ingredient: pomegranates.

The sauce: narsharab (narşərab), a traditional Azerbaijani recipe.

This sauce pairs well with meat, fish, and salads.

I recommend reading the recipe before you start, as it requires time.

To make one liter of narsharab, you need approximately 15 kilograms of pomegranates. To start, you can use 5 kilograms, which will yield a smaller amount of sauce.

In Azerbaijan, the sauce is typically made using more acidic pomegranates.

Extract the juice from the pomegranates using a citrus juicer (like an orange juicer). If you don’t have a juicer, separate the pomegranate seeds and blend them.

Next, cook the juice in a pot over low heat until it thickens and reaches a molasses-like consistency. Alternatively, you can place the juice in an oven preheated to between 130°C and 150°C for five hours until it reaches the desired consistency.

Yes, it takes time. Unless your oven has a programmable shut-off function, you need to stay home and keep an eye on the recipe for five hours. And even if your oven has that feature, I wouldn't recommend making the recipe for the first time without personally monitoring the process.

Once the sauce is ready, let it cool and store it in lidded glass containers. It is best kept in a cool, dark place.

Nycka Nunes