I made this salad for the first time last Easter and is served as an appetizer. It was more successful than I expected. Some of my guests didn’t even know what puntarelle chicory was and they were a little bit intimidated at first. A few years ago I didn’t know much about puntarelle either only that it was a famous vegetable widely used in the Roman cuisine. It was difficult to find it here in the North, but luckily now they are available in our stores starting in December through April.

Puntarelle is a variety of chicory, with serrated leaves, attached to the base of the plant that surrounds the shoots growing inside the plant during the winter. Its flavor is similar to chicory and endive with bitter and peppery-like taste. The shoots are crunchy and can be eaten raw or cooked. When cooked have a mellower flavor and can be used to make wonderful pasta dishes. There are also other ways to eat them cooked, for example, my mom boils them and simply eats them with hard boiled eggs seasoned with olive oil, salt and pepper. When eaten raw they have a stronger and bitter taste and thus they’re often accompanied with anchovies in salads that mitigate the bitterness and compliment the flavor.

I should call this Easter salad because it gathers contemporary and traditional Easter ingredients. It’s a tribute to the spring: puntarelle, oranges, avocado and the ever present eggs. Eggs have always been a vital and positive symbol, an emblem of new life and a metaphor for the rebirth of nature and body. In all the continents as well as in the most antique traditions, eggs seem to have similar meanings and were eaten to celebrate the arrival of the spring. This tradition hasn’t changed in centuries, so lets celebrate!

Puntarelle with eggs, oranges and avocado salad

Ingredients:

1 lb. puntarelle chicory
4 oranges
3 eggs
1 avocado
3.5 oz. black olives
the juice of one lemon
5-6 chives chopped
5 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
2 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar
sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Preparation:

Discard the outer and thicker leaves of the puntarelle. Cut the shoots in four part and place them in cold water together with the thinner and smaller leaves. Leaving them in cold water makes them crunchier as well as curly and less bitter.
Boil the eggs for 10 minutes, cool them under cold running water. Shell them and cut them in round slices.
Peal the oranges with a knife and eliminate the rind (zest, the orange part plus albedo, the white part). Slice the oranges in thin round slices and place them on the bottom of a serving plate.
Cut the avocado in two and eliminate the seed. Cut the avocado in cubes and sprinkle them with the lemon juice so they won’t get dark.
Drain the puntarelle and pat them dry. Place them in the middle of the plate and decoratively add also the egg slices, the olives and the avocado cubes.
In a small bowl whisk the oil together with balsamic vinegar, chives, salt and pepper. Drizzle the condiment over the salad and serve. Buon appetito!

Notes:
Recipe adapted from Sale & Pepe Magazine (April 2002).

Every year I like to try a new side dish for Thanksgiving. I usually choose cooked vegetables because I feel they go better with the rest of the dinner. This year for a change I’ll introduce a broccoli salad to my usual menu. The recipe is inspired by a dish I found years ago on Taste of home. It’s an easy salad to assemble, and should be prepared one hour in advance, which is very helpful when you have one dish less to think about before guests arrive.

Quality ingredients are important for good results. Don’t buy the broccoli florets in the plastic bags, they’re already dry and have lost part of their flavor, not to mention their properties. It will take a little bit more time to prepare the salad, but your efforts will be worth it. I bought mine at my local farmer and made the salad right away. The broccoli were so fresh that I used part of the stem too. The day after broccoli were still crispy and didn’t get soggy at all. Buy your tangerines fresh, don’t even think about getting them canned. Be careful when choosing your mayonnaise, make sure it doesn’t have honey or spices in it. It should only contain eggs, oil and vinegar otherwise it will change the flavor of your salad.

If you don’t like raw broccoli, you can always blanch them in hot water for less than a minute. I personally love them raw and crispy. We don’t usually eat raw broccoli in Italy. I learned on my first visit to the States when I encountered a plate of raw veggies and cheese dip. It was love at first sight, for raw broccoli,  cauliflower and cheese dip as well.  I wish all of you who celebrate Thanksgiving a happy one with friends and family.

Broccoli salad with tangerines

Ingredients:

8 cups broccoli florets, about 3 1/2 heads of broccoli
7 tangerines, clementines or mandarin oranges
6 thin bacon strips, cooked and crumbled, 1/2 cup when crumbled
1/4 cup finely chopped red onion
1/3 cup sultanas raisins, soaked in lukewarm water for 20 minutes then dried
1/2 cup toasted unsalted cashews

For the salad dressing
1/2 cup + 1 Tbsp. mayonnaise (without sugar)
1/2 cup + 1 Tbsp. Greek yogurt
1-2 Tbsp. sugar
2 tablespoons white or apple cider vinegar

Preparation:

In a small bowl, whisk mayonnaise, Greek yogurt, sugar and vinegar. Cover and refrigerate.
In the meantime cook the bacon slices, in a nonstick pan, until golden brown. Place them on a paper towel to eliminate the grease and then crumble them.
In a large bowl add broccoli, tangerines, onion, bacon and raisins. Add the dressing and combine well. Cover the salad and refrigerate for 1 hour.
Before serving sprinkle the salad with the cashews and mix well. If you let the cashews soak too long they’ll loose their crunchiness.

Maybe some of you don’t know but Kamut (Ka’moot) is not the name of a grain but it’s a registered trademark of Kamut International Ltd. used to market a grain which contains certain guaranteed attributes.  The word Kamut is an ancient Egyptian word for wheat. Egyptologists claim the root meaning of Kamut is “Soul of the Earth.” This new grain is an old relative of durum wheat, its common name is Khorasan wheat, Lat. Triticum.turanicum.turgidum. It’s 2 to 3 times the size of common wheat with 20–40% more proteins, higher in amino acids, vitamins, lipids and minerals. It can be an alternative to wheat and it’s nutritionally superior as well it has a sweet and buttery flavor and can be easily digested. Some Kamut products also have a low glicemic index . The introduction and cultivation of Kamut® wheat is an important new crop for sustainable agriculture. It is in fact an excellent crop for organic farming due to its ability to produce high quality grains without artificial fertilizers and pesticides. It’s cultivated in a small area of North America: Northeastern and Central Montana, Northwestern North Dakota (USA), Alberta and Saskatchewan, Canada.

Kamut Salad with Vegetables

2 cups of Kamut Berries uncooked
1 small onion finely chopped
1 clove of garlic minced
2 carrots
1 celery stalk
1 small eggplant or half of a big one
2 zucchini
1 small yellow bell pepper or half of a big one
6 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
2 Tbsp. Italian chopped parsley (optional)
salt to taste

Serves: 4 to 6 persons

Cook the kamut berries as directed. You can usually soak them overnight and then cook them for about 40′ or just cook them directly for a longer time, about 80′. When ready drain the kamut and mix it in a salad bowl with 4 Tbsp. of olive oil and set aside.

Saute the onions and the garlic in 4 Tbsp. olive oil until translucent. In the meantime cut all the vegetables in small cubes. When the onions are ready add the carrots, the celery and the eggplants and cook them for about 10 minutes.  At last add the zucchini and the bell peppers and cook them for about 5-10 minutes.

Combine the vegetables with the kamut berries, sprinkle the dish with freshly chopped parsley and serve. This dish can also be served cold or at room temperature.

I was going to cook the zucchini with onions and olive oil (zucchini in tegame) but they were so fresh that I decided to make a salad out of them. I usually don’t like to eat raw zucchini, however when they’re still small and very fresh they taste really good raw. They’re usually added to mixed salads to give them an extra refreshing touch but this time I tried to use only zucchini.

My husband doesn’t like zucchini in any preparation at all but he actually ate this salad and liked it. I assure you that I was very surprised. My kid ate it too without any problem, he actually loves vegetables and luckily he already eats an ample variety of them. Even if you’re not a zucchini lover like my husband don’t run away, instead try this dish and tell me what you think about it. The zucchini you choose have to be pretty small though. Better if you pick them fresh from your own garden or if you find them at a farmers market near you. Needless to say that if they’re organic they’ll be even better.

Let’s get down to the recipe I made. This zucchini salad is really simple and quick to prepare. It can be served as a side dish, as an appetizer or if you want to eat light as a main dish. It can also be prepared ahead of time (1 hour) small zucchini in fact are firmer than the big ones and they won’t become soggy so easily.

Here’s the recipe:

Zucchini salad for every palate

1 lb. zucchini – about 8 depending on their size
2-3 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
2 tsp. fresh lemon juice
salt to taste
1 1/2 cups fresh thinly sliced Parmesan cheese, you can also add more if you like.

Serves: 4 to 6 persons

Preparation:

Shred the zucchini and put them in the salad bowl then whisk the oil together with the lemon and salt.
Add the sliced Parmesan cheese to the zucchini and flavor them with the oil mixture. Mix until well combined. Serve and enjoy it!