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ITALIAN RECIPES

After Easter, Some Healthy Salads

A couple of Walnut Salads

Ingredients:

The Fish-and-Greens Salad
The white, tender heard of a bunch of celery
A head of chicory
The nutmeats from 15 walnuts
2 eggs, hard-boiled
2 salted anchovies, rinsed, boned, and split (if you use anchovies packed in oil, you'll want four filets)
2 ounces (50 g) ventresca di tonno (tuna cut from the underside of the fish -- if you cannot
find this use what's available, and go for canned, because if you purchase it raw you will have to cook it)
Olive oil
Freshly squeezed lemon juice
Salt and pepper
The Fuit Salad
6 lettuce hearts, coarsely shredded
3 ripe, juicy pears, peeled and sliced
The nutmeats from 10 walnuts, crushed
The nutmeats from 10 walnuts, ground
Extravirgin olive oil (Ligurian oil from Taggiasca olives would be best)
The juice of a lemon
Salt and pepper

Preparation:

Fish-and-Greens Salad:
Slice the celery and julienne the chicory, then combine them in your salad bowl. Cut the eggs into wedges, break up the filets into pieces, shred the tuna, and grind the nuts. Whisk the olive oil and lemon juice together in a small bowl, then stir all the ingredients into the salad bowl.
Fuit Salad: Combine everything, season with salt and pepper, olive oil, and the lemon juice, and serve at once, before the pears discolor.

Rich Potato Salad

Ingredients:

1/2 pound (200 g) provolone dolce or caciocavallo, diced
2 pounds (800 g) potatoes
1 tablespoon salted capers (pickled will work if need be)
A spring onion, finely sliced, including the green part
1/4 cup minced parsley
Olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:

Boil or steam the potatoes until a skewer penetrates them easily. Let them cool, peel them, dice them, and put them in a bowl. Add the other ingredients, mix well, and serve.
Serves 4.

Zucchini and Pancetta Salad

Ingredients:

1 pound fresh tender spinach
1 fresh zucchino
1 yellow bell pepper
1/4 pound pancetta, cut in a single slice
A clove of garlic, sliced finely
Parsley
Olive oil
A tablespoon of pine nuts
Vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:

Trim the tips of the zucchino, slice it finely, and sauté it in 2 tablespoons of oil, with the clove of garlic. Remove it from the flames while when the zucchino is slightly tender.
Meanwhile, wash and drain the spinach, leaving the leaves whole. Julienne the pepper, and toast the pine nuts.

Mix the spinach, pepper, and pine nuts in a large salad bowl.
Mince the pancetta and sauté it until the pieces are crunchy.
Season the salad with a vinaigrette made with 3 tablespoons of oil, salt and pepper to taste, and a tablespoon of vinegar. Stir in the zucchini, and the pancetta, with its oil (if you choose to omit the oil, add some more olive oil to the vinaigrette). Serve at once.
Serves 4.

Cauliflower and Avocado Salad

Ingredients:

2 heads of Belgian endive
20 cauliflower florets
1 ripe avocado
The juice of a lemon
2 small heads of red radicchio
A large slice of Savoy cabbage
A small carrot
Six walnuts, minced
Olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:

Wash and steam the cauliflower florets; drain them, and slice them lengthwise.
Put the florets in a salad bowl, and add to them the endive, sliced crosswise, the radicchio leaves, whole, and the cabbage, shredded.
Peel the avocado, halve it, discarding the pit, and cut it into thin slices, sprinkling the slices with the lemon juice immediately to keep them from darkening. Peel the carrot and julienne it.

Mix all the vegetables together, and season them with the strained juice of the lemon, 2 tablespoons of oil, salt and pepper to taste, and the minced nutmeats.
Serves 4.

Farro Salad

Ingredients:

6 ounces (by weight, 150 g) farro, in whole grains
6 ripe tomatoes, diced
15 black olives (the sweet kind), pitted and cut in half
10 basil leaves
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1/4 cup olive oil (you may want more)
Salt and shredded red pepper.

Preparation:

Prepare the farro: Wash it well, picking out impurities such as bits of chaff, pebbles, or bad grains, and soak it for at least 8 hours. Next, cook it for 2 hours (a pressure cooker will speed things) and let it sit for a while when it's done.

While it's sitting, combine the tomatoes, basil leaves, garlic, olive oil salt and red pepper, and let them sit too for at least a half hour. Drain the farro, stir it into the tomatoes, add the olives, check seasoning, and serve. Poor people's food, but what the Mediterranean diet is all about, and quite healthy too.

Cheesy Grana Padano Potato Salad

Ingredients:

Apples
Potatoes
Vinegar
Salt
Grana Padano, in a whole chunk

Preparation:

There are lots of salads that include chunks or flakes of cheese, including Grana Padano. But try this: Take a bowl and combine half pound (200 g) of peeled diced apples with a half pound of peeled steamed diced potatoes.

Dissolve a healthy pinch of salt in a tablespoon (or more if you'd rather) of vinegar, combine it with a tablespoon or more of olive oil, and stir the mixture into the apple mixture. Flake a half pound of Grana Padano and stir the flakes into the salad. Chill, and serve.
If you want to you can also add thinly sliced radishes or bulb fennel, and don't forget how well cheese goes with pears.

Baby Carrot and Almond Salad

Ingredients:

1 pound frozen baby carrots
1 tablespoon slivered almonds
A small heart of red radicchio
A tablespoon of butter
A white celery heart
The heart of a fennel bulb
1 yolk
A dash of cider vinegar
Olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:

Steam the carrots, draining them while they're still crunchy, then sauté them with the butter until they're lightly browned.
Meanwhile, prepare a fairly runny mayonnaise by whipping the yolk with a pinch each of salt and pepper, a dash of vinegar, and a the olive oil, added a few drops at a time.
Should the mayonnaise become too thick, dilute it with a few more drops of vinegar or lemon juice.

Finely slice the radicchio, fennel, and celery and combine them in a salad bowl with the carrots, which should be drained. Pour the sauce over the greens, and serve, sprinkled with the almond slivers.

Buon appetito!

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