Monday, March 10, 2008

Italian Chopped Salad


I've been neglecting my poor blog this past month! I've been cooking away in a corner of my kitchen, almost every day in fact -- I just haven't stopped to snap any food shots lately! I don't know why, just too busy I guess. Anyway, I did shoot this salad one afternoon last week. It was excellent -- I loved it so much I'm going to make it again tomorrow. It's like an antipasto without any meat. It was so colorful and crunchy, and the dressing was really yummy too. I made it to go along with Giada's awesome Lasagna Rolls that I posted about back in January; I didn't think I needed to shoot those again since they're already on my blog! ;-) Any readers I have left will begin to think that I'm a one-hit wonder!!

ITALIAN CHOPPED SALAD
Serves: 8
Source: Adapted from Epicurious.com

For Vinaigrette:
3 T. red wine vinegar
1 small garlic cloved, minced
1/2 t. sugar
1/8 t. black pepper
6 T. olive oil

For Salad:
1 medium red onion, julienned
2 hearts of romaine (12 oz.), torn into bite-sized pieces
1 c. loosely packed fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves
1/2 can artichoke hearts, drained and quartered
1 red bell pepper, julienned
1 c. brine cured black olives
1 c. drained bottled peperoncini
1/2 lb. grape tomatoes
A little shredded mozzarella and a sprinkle of Parmesan if you like

Make the dressing: Whisk together all vinaigrette ingredients in a small bowl until combined well. ** I emulsified mine with a stick blender instead.

Arrange salad ingredients in a large serving bowl. Drizzle with dressing, salt, and ground black pepper to taste.

2 comments:

Georgina Ingham | CulinaryTravels said...

That salad looks so healthy and tasty, great combo isn't it.

Now I can't wait for the warmer weather so I can get back to my big bowls of salad.

Unknown said...

Yyum, I love these types of salads. Your pictures are so good, makes me hungry. You beat me to it though, I have half a post written on salads.