Intxaursalsa

 For Ayshe

Probably many of you will not know the Intxaursalsa. It is one of those traditional recipes that were almost lost and that only the work of Basque chefs has been able to recover in recent years.

The name is Basque and means walnut sauce, although the correct way of writing it is intxaur-saltsa (where intxaur is walnut in Basque language). It is a very simple dessert to make that has always had a reputation - a bad reputation - for being very caloric. It is true, but this is compensated by knowing that walnuts have oleic oil and polyunsaturated oils that are very effective in fighting coronary heart disease as you can read in this article. In fact, it is proven that finishing a very copious meal consuming nuts minimizes the impact on our arteries caused by saturated fats of animal origin previously ingested (the body is left as if we had not committed any excess).

Yes, it must be noted that it contains a lot of sugar and against it there is no possible excuse unless you use brown sugar or a non-artificial sweetener (stevia, for example). In any case, it is a dessert indicated for lovers of nuts and in particular of walnuts.

INGREDIENTS (4 diners)

• 1 liter of whole milk
• 150 grams (5.3 oz) of walnuts (the weight of the fruit without the shell)
• 100 grams (3.5 oz)  of sugar (or the equivalent of the natural sweetener)
• 1 cinnamon stick
• Sheep or goat cheese grated 

 

First we crush the walnuts until they are very crushed. Although the original recipe did not indicate it like that, I like to leave them converted into a kind of coarse flour.

We boil the milk with the cinnamon stick and when it starts to rise we lower the heat and add the walnuts and the sugar without stopping stirring for a second or the sugar could stick to the bottom of the saucepan. The boil lasts about half an hour, so be patient.

You will notice that as the cooking progresses the sauce thickens. In fact, in the end it should be with the consistency of rice pudding. Once the time has elapsed, we discard the cinnamon and pour the preparation into individual molds that we take to the refrigerator for two or three hours when their temperature has dropped.

They are served cold with the grated cheese on top, although some, already loosening their belts, even add whipped cream. In any case, it's really yummy.