Sabayon sauces are traditionally made sweet and served with deserts. In this recipe, we’re taking the same method for making sweet sabayons but using it to make a savoury red pepper sabayon that is excellent to serve with white fish or grilled vegetables. I first saw this specific recipe done by the master himself Michel Roux and I could not help myself wanting to try this beautifully rich, creamy and bright orange sauce.
History of sabayon sauces
The origin of sabayon sauces is a highly debated subject. It is believed that Zabaione was first made in Italy in the 1500s. This is an Italian dessert made by beating egg yolks and sugar with Marsala wine to create a light and airy texture. It is believed that the French adopted this recipe in the 1800s and made it using white wine or Champagne. While Zabaione is usually served on it’s own as a desert, the French sabayon sauce is usually used as a sauce that is spooned over fruit, cakes or compotes.
Eventually, the technique used to make Zabaione and sweet French Sabayon started to be used to make savoury sauces, like the one in the recipe below. Nowadays, sabayon is more of a technique than an actual recipe and it can be used to create countless types of sauces with different flavours.
Tips for a perfect sabayon sauce
- One of the main characteristics of Sabayon sauces (both sweet and savoury) is that the end sauce holds the flavour of the wine or base liquid used because the sauce is not cooked for a long time. For example Zabaione will have a strong flavour of the Marsala wine used. This is usually not the case when using wines and reducing them for a long time, like in a Bordelaise sauce for example.
For this reason, it is important that the base used for the Sabayon sauce is of high quality and has the right flavour profile because the end result will carry most (if not all) of the flavour in the base. - The second most important component of a Sabayon sauce are the egg yolks. For the best results, you need to use the freshest egg yolks you can find because the quality and the taste of the eggs really make a big difference in the end result. I have tried making a Sabayon sauce with store-bought packaged egg yolks once, but the result was not great as the sauce had a subtle off-putting flavour of egg that took away the characteristic flavour of the wine used as a base. When using the freshest eggs, this should not be the case.
- Sabayon sauces are not difficult to make, but the most common ways that they get screwed up is when they are not cooked gently. They are best done using a double boiler or a bain marie. This ensure that the sauce cooks slowly and you have time to incorporate air into it. If cooked too quickly over high heat, the eggs will scramble and the result will not be flavoured scrambled eggs not a sauce 🙂 When setting up a bain marie, make sure that the bottom of the bowl is not touching the boiling water. The bowl should heat up with the steam and not by contact with the water.
Preparing and storing a sabayon sauce
As explained above, sabayons are usually prepared on a bain marie. If served immediately, the sauce will be hot. However, the sauce stays perfectly well as it cools down and it can also be refrigerated for a couple of days. If not serving immediately, it is important to whisk the sauce again before serving, to ensure that it is homogenous and that if any of the liquids separate, they get incorporated again. If the sauce needs to be reheated, it needs to be done on very low heat; ideally also on a bain marie.
Variations of sabayon sauces
As mentioned above, nowadays sabayon is more of a technique than an actual sauce recipe. It’s the technique of mounting and thickening a base liquid using egg yolks, cooked over very low heat. Some recipes, especially savoury ones, go a step further and mount in butter to the sauce at the end to make it even smoother and richer. Of course, this is not done in the original Zabaione recipe but quite common in modern savoury sabayon sauces.
Sabayon sauces can be made with many different flavour variations, simply by changing the flavour of the base liquid used. Some exciting variations that I’ve tried in the past:
- Red pepper sabayon (as in the recipe below)
- Wild garlic sabayon. This makes an amazing garlic flavoured sauce with a beautiful green colour
- Dashi and miso sabayon
- Simple white wine sabayon flavoured with chopped herbs like tarragon or chevril
Red Pepper Sabayon
Ingredients
- 200 grams Red pepper
- 400 ml Vegetable stock Can be replaced with chicken or fish stock if preferred
- 4 Egg yolks
- 60 grams Cold Butter
- 1 sprig Thyme
- Salt and Pepper
Instructions
- Put the stock into a small sauce pan and place on medium heat. Bring to a boil and let reduce by half to intensify the flavour.
- Clean the red pepper from the seeds and roughly chop into 1-inch pieces. When the stock has reduced by half, add the red peppers and thyme to the sauce pan. Simmer for about 15 minutes or until the red pepper is tender and cooked through.
- Remove the thyme from the sauce pan. Pour the remaining contents into a blender and blend for about a minute.
- Pass the mixture through a fine meshed sieve into a clean bowl and let it cool down until it's just warm and cold enough to touch.
- Measure 200ml of the mixture and add to a bain-marie bowl (with the heat turned off for now). Add the egg yolks and whisk until well combined.
- Turn the heat on and cook the sauce on a baine-marie until it forms a ribbon consistency; i.e. the sauce is thick enough to form a ribbon when poured down from a spoon.
- Turn off the heat and whisk in the butter, a small cube at a time. Season with salt and pepper. Serve.