Chimichurri Sauce a La Uruguaya, South America

The key to making a great chimchurri sauce is having fresh herbs and patience. With both combinations, you can make a natural herb sauce for meat that will both inspire, enhance, and showplace your meat grilling while impressing friends and relatives. Chimichurri sauce from Uruguay is not meant to be peppery hot; there are no serrano, jalapeno or chile peppers grown in Uruguay at all. Rather, the sauce is meant to provide a subtle yet robust flavor explosion to be eaten with grilled meats to bring barbeque "alive" with natural flavors. If mixed right, it accomplishes this goal very easily and readily.

• Ready In: 20 mins
• Serves: 4-6
• Yields: 32 ounces

Ingredients

• 1⁄2 cup olive oil
• 8  leaves fresh basil
• 1⁄2 bunch  fresh  perejil (if you are in Uruguay, similar to Cilantro, but not quite)
• 1⁄2  fresh yellow onion
• 2  teaspoons oregano
• 2  teaspoons  minced garlic
• 1⁄2 lime
• 1  dash sea salt
• 1  dash fresh ground black pepper

Directions

1. Use a large plastic bowl that has a good sealing cover to it.
2. First add the 1/3 C of Olive Oil, and gently stir in the can of stewed tomatoes.
3. Chop the fresh basil leaves into tiny pieces, and pour into your mixture.
4. Now finely chop the 1/2 bunch of fresh perejil (do not discard the stems), and add into the mixture above, including chopped stem pieces. (The stem of the perejil has all of the intense flavor.).
5. Finely chop 1/2 of a fresh yellow onion, and add to the above sauce mixture.
6. Now add in the 2 tsp of oregano and 2 tsp of minced garlic. And add a dash of sea salt and some freshly ground black pepper.
7. Squeeze 1/2 of a fresh lime over the mixture and stir well. Now refrigerate the chimichurri sauce for at least one hour. Then serve as a side dish to your favorite outdoor grilled meats, for that truly South American flavor. Believe me, your guests will not need any barbeque sauce after tasting Chimchurri sauce with their meats!