Silvia Colloca's chicken breasts gently poached in aromatic stock until the meat stays juicy and tender, then sliced over a sharp green salsa of parsley, capers and anchovy. Italian summer food, the kind that lands cold on the plate but tastes alive. Make extra salsa.

The Italian salsa verde (literally green sauce) is the foundational raw-herb condiment of the Lombard and Veneto repertoires, served with everything from boiled meats (the Milanese bollito misto) to grilled fish to roasted vegetables. The defining ingredients are flat-leaf parsley, capers, anchovies, garlic and olive oil; bread or hard-boiled egg yolk sometimes added for body, lemon or wine vinegar for brightness.

Gentle poaching (the chicken cooked just below a simmer, around 75 to 80 degrees) is the technique that keeps the breast meat tender. A rolling boil seizes the proteins and turns the chicken stringy; the gentle poach allows the meat to set evenly through with the centre remaining moist. The aromatic vegetables in the poaching liquid (celery, shallot, garlic, parsley stems, lemon zest, bay leaf) build a quick stock that can be reused for risotto or soup the next day.

The salsa verde itself benefits from sitting for an hour before serving; the herbs hydrate, the garlic mellows, the flavours marry. Chop the parsley by hand with a sharp knife rather than blitzing in a food processor (which bruises the leaves and turns them grey-green). The chicken sliced thin against the grain, fanned across the plate, salsa spooned generously over the top. A cold glass of pinot grigio or a chilled rosé; a crusty bread alongside.