Italian Flag Dipping Sauce Trio Recipe

What's better than a trio of dipping sauces? A trio of sauces in the colors of the Italian flag, of course. There are many ways to recreate the bold green, red, and white stripes of the Italian flag using ingredients seen in Italian cooking. Green brings to mind basil, pesto, olives, herbs, and a variety of vegetables. Red is seen in tomatoes of course, but also peppers, peperoncino, and spices, while white is the color of mozzarella, garlic, and many soft cheeses.

Recipe developer Michelle Bottalico has created a recipe for a dipping sauce trio with vibrant colors and, even better, delicious flavors. "The most stereotypical Italian ingredients with these colors are basil, tomatoes, and mozzarella," Bottalico says. "Everyone knows marinara sauce, so I created an alternative with a base of roasted red peppers. Sauteed zucchini colors the green sauce, and the white sauce is made with Greek yogurt." Zucchini sauteed in olive oil and garlic is blended with creamy cannellini beans and parsley to make the green sauce. The red sauce blends roasted red peppers with avocado, fresh basil, garlic, and paprika for a rich and herby result. In the white sauce, garlic, lemon juice, and lemon zest add zing to Greek yogurt. Serve these dips with raw vegetables like celery, carrot, and cucumber, crackers, tortilla chips, or mozzarella sticks. The result is three creamy and flavor-packed dips that are not only delicious but also make a beautiful presentation honoring Italian culture.

For the green sauce, you will need extra virgin olive oil, garlic, zucchini, salt, cannellini beans, parsley, and water. For the red sauce, you'll first need a Hass avocado. If ripe avocados aren't available in stores, plan ahead to purchase the avocado so it's ripe when you're ready to make the sauce. You'll also need a 12-ounce jar of roasted red peppers, but you'll only need half of the jar for this recipe. The other ingredients for the red sauce are garlic, extra virgin olive oil, basil, sweet paprika, salt, and black pepper. The white sauce calls for Greek yogurt, and you can choose the fat percentage you prefer. In addition, have on hand garlic, extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice, lemon zest, and salt.

To make the green sauce, first heat the oil on medium in a skillet.

Add the garlic and saute for 1-2 minutes.

Add the zucchini and salt and saute, stirring often, for 7-9 minutes until the zucchini is tender and starting to brown. Remove the zucchini from the pan and set it aside to cool, about 15-20 minutes.

Meanwhile, start making the red sauce by removing the skin and seed from the avocado. Scoop out the flesh with a spoon and place it in a bowl or blender.

Place the roasted peppers, garlic, olive oil, basil, paprika, salt, and pepper in the bowl or blender.

Blend until smooth (with a blender or an immersion blender). Set aside or refrigerate until ready to use.

To make the white sauce, place the yogurt, garlic, olive oil, lemon juice, lemon zest, and salt in a dish and stir with a spoon until evenly mixed. Set aside or refrigerate until ready to use.

To finish the green sauce, when the zucchini is cool, place it in a bowl (or blender) with the cannellini beans, parsley, and water.

Blend until smooth with an immersion blender. Set aside or refrigerate until ready to use.

Serve the trio of dipping sauces cool or at room temperature with your choice of crudités, chips, crackers, or mozzarella sticks.

This recipe calls for store-bought roasted red peppers, but if you have the time and inclination, consider roasting your own peppers at home. Jarred peppers can be delicious and are certainly convenient, but they are also much moister and take on additional flavors from the brine. Although they take more work, homemade roasted peppers have a pure, concentrated flavor that's noticeable from the first bite.

There's more than one way to roast a pepper. First, you can roast them directly on the burner grate over the open flame of a gas stove. It's quick and produces serious char. Set the flame to high and turn the peppers with tongs once each side is black and deflated. Grilling peppers achieves a similar effect, and a charcoal grill will give them an extra smoky flavor. Place the peppers on a high grill and turn occasionally. 

Roasting peppers in the oven is less labor intensive but takes longer. Place the peppers on a baking sheet to catch the juices and bake at 450 F until black spots form and they look a little collapsed. Since baking sheets absorb a lot of heat from the oven, you can achieve more even roasting on both sides of the peppers by skipping the baking sheet and lining the oven rack with aluminum foil, placing the peppers directly on the foil. After roasting, allow the peppers to cool and peel them by hand.

To make these three dips creamy, we've used cannellini beans, avocado, and Greek yogurt. If you have special dietary needs or run out of a particular ingredient, you can substitute other creamy ingredients as needed. For example, the green sauce can be made with avocado instead of beans (and you'll achieve an even darker green color). You can also sub in Greek yogurt, which will add a richer consistency.

The red sauce could be made with cannellini beans or chickpeas instead of avocado if you would like to keep the fat content down. This is also a handy swap if your avocado is stubborn about ripening. On the other hand, you can make a richer version of the red sauce by using cream cheese instead of avocado. Besides the options already mentioned, any kind of bean can do in a pinch for the green and red sauces because beans are exceptional ingredients for creamy dips. Just keep in mind the color that they will add to the sauce. Butter beans, which are especially silky and creamy, are a good option.

As far as the white sauce, the options are a little more limited because of the color. You can consider subbing regular yogurt, sour cream, or cream cheese. You can make a cream cheese version lighter by using cream cheese and yogurt or sour cream in equal proportions.