CPK turned me on to beets. Previously, my only experience with beets involved giant jars of purple water filled with pickled beets and eggs, which disgusted me (although they disgust me no longer!). But CPK chopped the beets up very neatly in its compartmentalized salad (scroll down to see the image here; CPK obviously doesn't believe in mixing its Cobb salad), so I could pull over a few to sample the taste before committing. I loved the taste and never looked back.
Leona's turned me on to Ditalini pasta. I went to Leona's in Hyde Park the first night I moved to Chicago. I was physically exhausted after spending 16 hours on a train and emotionally exhausted after the general life upheaval involved in moving halfway across the country. As a result, the turkey Cobb salad tasted like the best salad I had ever eaten in my life. It probably wasn't, but Ditalini pasta is now crucial to my Cobb salad.
Here are the ingredients my Pasta Cobb Salad Redux ends up with at this point:
- Ditalini pasta (salted in the water!)
- Corn
- Beets
- Avocado
- Hearts of palm
- Bleu cheese
- Bacon (although I can take it or leave it at this point if it's just a side dish)
- Freshly ground pepper
- Hard-boiled eggs (I forgot these last night, but if you have some laying around, they're a nice additional protein)
Between the beets and the hearts of palm and avocado, it's a pretty moist salad and doesn't need any dressing. The bleu cheese is crucial and the bacon adds more saltiness to the almost sweet vegetables involved. It makes a quick side dish (it accompanied steak last night) or add some chicken to make it a full meal. One note: it's really a one-time only dish--the leftovers don't hold up well.
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