Allioli Tradicional

Allioli is Catalan and Valencian: garlic, salt, and olive oil worked in a mortar until they become one thick, glossy sauce. Its name gives you the recipe, all i oli, garlic and oil. No egg. Add egg and you've made garlic mayonnaise, useful in its place, but it is not this sauce.

The method that decides it comes before most of the oil. I pound the garlic and salt until no grain remains, then feed in the first 15ml one drop at a time. Garlic can hold the oil only after it has become a smooth, sticky paste; leave pieces or flood it early and the emulsion has no steady foundation. Once that first spoonful is firm, the rest can follow in a fine thread.

Arbequina olive oil is at home here, mild and fruity enough to let the garlic speak. If you can't find it, use a good mild extra virgin olive oil from where you are. A peppery oil still works, but the allioli will taste fiercer and may finish bitter; neutral seed oil makes a paler imitation without the olive character. No hace falta haber pisado España, you don't need to have set foot in Spain. The margin beside this recipe says only, "the oil waits for the garlic." Siempre sale, si lo sigues, it turns out if you follow it.