150g shelled walnuts, soaked in boiling water for 1 hour to remove any bitterness from the skins
30g stale white bread, crusts removed, soaked in water, then squeezed
2 garlic cloves, crushed to a paste with salt
2–3 dessertspoons red wine vinegar a good pinch of ground allspice juice of ¼ lemon
6–10 tablespoons water
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil sea salt and black pepper
Notes
Tarator is a classic Turkish garlicky nut sauce eaten with vegetables, grilled fish or chicken. It is made with either walnuts, almonds, pinenuts or hazel-nuts. We find the flavour of raw garlic goes particularly well with walnuts. Recently we have taken to tossing warm green beans as well as cucumber salad in this sauce.
Source
Moro
Ebury Press, 2001
p.256
Rinse and drain the walnuts, put in a food processor with the squeezed bread and blend well.
This is slightly a matter of taste.
The finer the nuts are chopped, the more mayonnaise-like the end result is.
Combine the other ingredients and stir in.
Season with salt and pepper.
Roughly chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley or dill is a nice addition to this sauce.