Amogio, Ammogghiu, or...

[gariotin]

When eating at a friends last evening, she served her grandmother's recipe for a fresh tomato sauce that she knows a "ah moy gyu". Her grandmother was Sicilian and the sauce was chopped fresh tomatoes, crushed garlic cloves, lemon juice, and fresh oregano. She served it as a condiment with grilled steak and said that was the way it was served when she was a child.

I am sure that this name is a bastardization of an Italian name and am interested if anyone recognizes this sauce and knows more about it.

[gariotin]

OK - 86 people have looked at this and no one even guessed?

She says that her family spells it amoigu.

It fascinates me b/c it does not sound Italian and I assume that Sicily is like many islands in the Med region that were visited by various different cultures.

Any ideas?

[pax]

There is a Sicilian Salmoriglio sauce in Marcella Hazan's Essentials of Italian Cooking. It's meant to serve with swordfish, apparently, and it has lemon juice, oregano, olive oil and black pepper. No tomatoes.

If you google "amoigu", there are several references to it as a garlic tomato salsa. I found this, too..

Cyber Kitchen's Grilled Filet Mignon with Roasted Tomato and Oregano Sauce

Sounds yummy, want to post your friend's recipe?

Edited June 20, 2008 by pax (log)

[gariotin]

Here you go....

Grandma Cataldo's amogio

1 small can diced tomatos

2 T olive oil

As many crushed garlic cloves as you like

1 t oregano leaves

Juice from half a lemon

Salt & Pepper

Now, if it were me, I would use fresh ripe tomatoes, blanch or roast the garlic & throw in a lot, and put in more oregano. But that's me.....

I also noticed that since I've been talking to her about it, the spelling has changed from amoigu to amogio - which sound much more Italian to me.

Anyhow, it was great on grilled steak, but I agree that it would be fabulous on grilled meaty fish like swordfish or salmon

[Chris Amirault]

I think Hazan has a recipe somewhere for swordfish that omits the tomatoes but keeps everything else....

[Kevin72]

I saw a version on the Cucina Italia cooking show on PBS a few years back. I don't remember tomatoes being in their version, but loads of garlic seems to be a commonality. Also their version had anchovies as well.

I wonder if this is one of those dishes that's much more popular among Sicilian immigrants in the US than it is back in the native country. Also I suspect it's evolved into its own thing on these shores.

[gariotin]

I wonder if this is one of those dishes that's much more popular among Sicilian immigrants in the US than it is back in the native country.  Also I suspect it's evolved into its own thing on these shores.

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I think you are right about this - I'll bet Grandma Cataldo kept making it, and possibly adapting it to what she had available, as a way of keeping her connection to home alive.

[Maureen B. Fant]

I wonder if this is one of those dishes that's much more popular among Sicilian immigrants in the US than it is back in the native country.  Also I suspect it's evolved into its own thing on these shores.

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I think you are right about this - I'll bet Grandma Cataldo kept making it, and possibly adapting it to what she had available, as a way of keeping her connection to home alive.

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’”Ammogghiu” is alive and well on Pantelleria as a condiment of raw tomatoes, oil, garlic, basil, and peperoncino. It is used on pasta and with grilled fish. I believe it's also used around Trapani. I don't know the history of the famous pesto trapanese, but I wonder if this could be a precursor. The word also occurs as mmogghiu and nvogghiu and somehow comes from the Italian invoglio or involto, meaning a bunch of wrapped up things. This etymology business comes from it.wiktionary.org.

The description coincidentally corresponds exactly to what I put on bruschetta here in Rome.

[weinoo]

And, if I might add to what Maureen posted above...from Mary Taylor Simeti's great book, Pomp and Sustenance, ammogghiu is the:

presiding muse of every Sicilian cookout, to spoon over grilled meat and fish, or onto slices of grilled eggplant, or simply to spread on bruschette, slices of day-old Sicilian bread toasted on the coals.

[gariotin]

Thank you all so much - this was exactly the kind of info I was hoping for! And I am not surprised it is still a staple sauce - simple, quick, delicious, and versatile.

Thanks for all the input!

[piazzola]

Kind of rendezvous but Argentineans have one of many BBQ sauces identical although fine sliced garlic cloves and fresh oregano sometimes salvia is added are used sometimes using lemon others using vinegar.Used to flavour meats of course.

I am not surprised at all since gremolata and chimchurri can be also identical.