Anissa's Garlic Sauce

Name: Anissa's Garlic Sauce
Yield: Makes 3/4 to 1 cup
Ingredients: 6 plump fresh garlic cloves, crushed with the flat blade of a knife; 1 teaspoon sea salt; 1/3 to 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil; 3 to 4 tablespoons strained yogurt

By Nancy Harmon Jenkins

April 30, 2013

Toum bi Zeit

I had struggled for years to get this sauce right—clear white, creamy, and pungent. But it was only when my Lebanese friend and food writer Anissa Helou offered the suggestion of strained yogurt instead of the customary dampened bread or mashed potato that the whole thing began to come together for me. This is delicious but—obviously—for garlic lovers only. It is best made with a mortar and pestle, as a food processor brings out an acrid flavor.

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