Since I’ve been invited to dine with friends this evening, I’m not cooking.  My host is making grilled salmon and I’ve been trying to figure out what to bring all day long.

When I worked at Po with Mario, we used to make a beet vinaigrette that was a beautiful sauce for salmon.  It was simply beets, vinegar, mustard and oil.  I have some beets from my neighbor Beppi’s garden, so I’ve decided to roast them, cool them and make the vinaigrette.

It’s been many years since I’ve made this sauce and I’ve only made it in restaurant-size quantities, so today’s sauce took some trial and error until I got the proportions correct.

I’ve used a combination of red wine vinegar and balsamic vinegar–both are necessary to balance the sweetness and acidity.  The mustard I used was creamy dijon mustard, and the oil was extra-virgin olive oil.  A good amount of water was necessary to thin the sauce to a pourable consistency (but not too watery).

The beets simply get roasted until soft (tonight’s batch took a solid 2 hours wrapped in foil in a 375 degree oven).  Sometimes they soften after an hour–it all depends on the beets.

The beets and other ingredients get combined in the blender, then poured into a squeeze bottle (for that professional touch) and drizzled over the fish.  Test its pourability on a plate prior to serving–it might need thinning out (more water) or thickening–more oil and/or mustard.

Beet Vinaigrette

2 cups cooked, diced beets (1/2″ dice)

1/4 c balsamic vinegar

2 tbls creamy dijon mustard

3 tbls red wine vinegar

2 tbls olive oil

3 tbls (or more) water

3/4 tsp salt

Place all ingredients in blender and puree.  If your sauce is not pourable, add more water (and possibly more salt to correct the additional water).  Pour into squeeze bottle and drizzle over fish.

Keeps well in the fridge for 2 days.