Quick Italian Dinner Fare

 


Insalata di Puntarelle is apparently some kind of Italian chicory salad. This recipe is not made with chicory but with Belgian endive and celery cut into thin strips. The dressing is garlic, anchovies (I used anchovy paste because I had it on hand), extra-virgin olive oil, red wine vinegar, dijon mustard, and Kosher salt. Super easy to make. Seriously, the prep time was all of 10 minutes. The trick, and do not skip this step, is to place the sliced endive and celery into a bowl of ice water in the refrigerator for an hour. You drain it then and toss with the dressing. Fantastic! It's fresh and crisp and has a nice little bite. I also refrigerated my salad plates, too, to prolong the chill of the salad.

 

 I found this salad recipe when I was searching for a pasta dish for dinner.  I found a Capellini with Shrimp and Tomato Cream Sauce that sounded interesting, and easy.  The good folks at Epicurious had made that recipe part of its Quick Italian Dinner Fare menu, which the salad as a first course and Apricots with Amaretto Syrup for dessert.  All the recipes were easy.  The Capellini was good but a little bland.  Next time I'll try some more red pepper to spice it up.  The Apricots were good, too.  They weren't what I had been expecting, but that was probably because I used canned apricots (sorry, it was what I had on hand).  It was also very sweet.  I think next time I'll cut down on the sugar (and use fresh apricots) and see if that helps.

All in all, it was an enjoyable meal.  Easy to prepare (hurray!) and tasty.  I should have probably started this post with the main course, but it's the Insalata di Puntarelle that I've been craving and has become a staple in my kitchen.