Italian Summer Salad With Basil Dressing

I’d planned on making our usual mixed salad this evening when the colorful pyramids of fresh vegetables at our local market talked me into making something different, something like an Italian Summer Salad with Basil Dressing.  

Yes! Vegetables do talk to me — fruit too.

Suddenly our typical salad didn’t seem the least bit appealing. The vegetables had done a great job of convincing me to forget typical and go for the Italian Summer Salad. I grabbed a head of bright green romaine from the neat stack and placed it in the cart’s basket. This would be my base. Then I spotted the beautiful purple globes of radicchio and tossed one into the grocery cart. Celery and an English cucumber {we like this variety since it has less seeds} are a must in our salad so one of each joined the other vegetables. And what would an Italian salad be without tomatoes? I looked around and spotted the little ruby red grape tomatoes piled in small trays just waiting for me to add them to the group in the cart.

I looked around searching for a little bit more variety when I remembered we had some fantastic purply-black cherry tomatoes waiting to be picked on our potted plant on the patio. Of course I would need a step ladder to reach the ripe fruit.

Have you ever seen anything that tall? The picture was taken before it grew another two feet and the tomatoes started to ripen. Nevertheless the cherry tomatoes would be a good addition.

Something oniony was needed. Hmmm! I looked around and picked up a package of scallions. Now, the Italian summer salad needed something with tangy zing. The lightbulb turned on in the brain — peperoncini! Now we were getting somewhere. I rolled over to the pickle department. Found it! The jar joined the veggies.  If there was a salad in front of my Hubby it needed to have olives. Luckily we had some spicy pimento stuffed green olives at home. Perfecto!

Now the Italian summer salad needed some kind of nutty crunch. I turned  the cart around and pushed  to where all the bulk items were displayed.  There they were — sunflower seeds! Italy has lots of sunflowers.  Roasted and toasted sunflower seeds would taste great in the salad. The cheese would be pecorino. At home we had a hunk of pecorino and some shaved pieces on top would be ideal.   

Now, what about a salad dressing? Basil! We have so much basil we’re using it in vases as herb bouquets.  I’ve mentioned before the problem of sticking basil in water — it roots. Then we have to find some place to bury the roots. *sigh* We can only make so much pesto. The basil dressing uses up a healthy amount of basil leaves so basil dressing it will be.

Tonight we were going to enjoy Italian Summer Salad with Basil Dressing.  

Mangiare dovrebbe essere un’avventura {Eating should be an adventure}

Un caro saluto, alla prossima. 

Italian Summer Salad with Basil Dressing

2015-08-19 19:39:32

A crispy mixed salad with romaine as the base with delicious additions of cucumber, tomatoes,radicchio, scallions, peperoncini, roasted sunflower seeds, shaved pecorino cheese and topped with a fresh basil dressing.

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Ingredients

1. Salad: be sure to wash greens
2. Romaine - torn into pieces
3. Radicchio - washed and cut into desired pieces
4. English Cucumber sliced lengthwise and cut into half moons
5. Grape tomatoes - cut in half
6. Cherry tomatoes - cut in half
7. Scallions (green onions) - use white and green - sliced
8. Peperoncini - we left them whole
9. Roasted Sunflower Seeds
10. Shaved pecorino cheese q.b. quanto basta - as much as you like

Basil Dressing

1. 3/4 cup fresh lemon juice
2. 2/3 cup white balsamic vinegar
3. 1 cup packed fresh basil leaves
4. 1/3 cup Dijon mustard
5. 1 1/2 cups extra virgin olive oil
6. 1 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
7. 1 Tablespoon black pepper
8. 1 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

Instructions

1. Prepare the salad, starting with the romaine and adding everything except the cheese and sunflower seeds in layers. Toss the salad and sprinkle the seeds and shaved pecorino on top

For the salad dressing

1. Add everything except the olive oil to a blender and puree. Slowly add the olive oil to the basil mixture so it will emulsify and blend thoroughly.
2. When ready to serve, place the salad on a plate and then drizzle the basil dressing on top. You can also dress the entire salad but we prefer doing it individually.

Notes

1. You can use red wine vinegar in place of the white balsamic but in this dressing we prefer the milder white. If you do use red wine you may want to add a teaspoon or two of honey.

By Marisa Franca @ All Our Way

All Our Way https://allourway.com/

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