Shumon joined us for dinner. We started with a wonderful
salad: little gem lettuce with dates, red onion, and gorgonzola dolce from TheMozza Cookbook by Nancy Silverton and Matt Molina. We served it on a platter
and ate every last leaf. It is a great salad. This is the first year we have used
little gem lettuce. The lettuce is crispy and reminds me of a dwarf romaine
lettuce.
For the main course we made Salmon Patties out of the salmon
that I had previously smoked. You can find the recipe for the Salmon and Dill
Fish Cakes from The Kitchen Diaries by Nigel Slater on our
blog of: June 4, 2012. Click the date to get the recipe.
little gem lettuce with dates, red onion, and gorgonzola
dolce
The Mozza Cookbook
Silverton Molina
for
the dressing
10 ounces Gorgonzola dolce
2 tablespoons plus 1
teaspoon Spanish sherry vinegar
2 cups strained
whole-milk
Greek yogurt
¼ cup buttermilk
2 teaspoons fresh
lemon juice, plus more to taste
2 teaspoons chopped
fresh thyme leaves
4 large garlic cloves,
grated
1 tablespoon kosher
salt, plus more to taste
½ teaspoon fresh
coarsely ground black pepper, plus more to taste
for the salad
12 to 18 1/2-inch-thin
slices of red onion
3 heads Little Gem
lettuce or 1 head iceberg lettuce, quartered, or 3 small hearts of romaine
3 Medjool dates, pits
removed
1 teaspoon fresh thyme
leaves
Fresh coarsely ground black pepper
My two favorite salads in the world are a properly prepared
Caesar salad and an iceberg wedge with blue cheese dressing, neither of which
have any place in an Italian restaurant. Just as I sneaked the Caesar salad in
under the guise of a tricolore, here I disguised the iceberg wedge sufficiently
so that my customers don't realize that I'm serving a wedge salad, an American
classic, in a Pizzeria. I don't know where I got the idea to throw the dates on
the salad, but the contrast of their sweetness with the pungent Gorgonzola
really makes this.
SERVES 4 T6 6
To make the dressing, combine 6 ounces of the Gorgonzola and
the vinegar in a medium bowl and mash them together with a whisk until the
cheese is smooth. Add the yogurt, buttermilk, lemon juice, thyme, garlic, salt,
and pepper, and use the whisk to stir to combine. Taste for seasoning and add
more lemon juice, salt, or pepper, if desired. Break the remaining Gorgonzola
into small pieces into the bowl and stir gently with a rubber spatula to
incorporate the chunks into the dressing but not so much that they become
smooth.
To prepare the salad, place the onion slices in a small bowl
of ice water and set them aside while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.
Remove the rough outer leaves from the lettuce and cut off
and discard the rough caps at the bottom of the cores, leaving the heads
intact. Starting at the core, cut each head of lettuce in half lengthwise. If
you are making four individual salads, spoon 1/4 cup of the dressing on each of
four plates; otherwise, spoon 1 cup of the dressing in the center of a long
platter and use the back of a spoon to spread the dressing along the length of
the platter. One by one, spoon 2 tablespoons of the dressing over each half
head, using the back of the spoon to spread it along the cut sides of the
lettuce halves, leaving the edges of the heads visible. As you dress the
halves, place them face up on the dressed plates, as the dressing on the plates
will help keep the lettuce in place. For individual salads, place one lettuce
head half, cut side up, on each plate. To build the salad on a platter, place
the lettuce head halves along the length of the platter backgammon style, with
one facing one direction and the one next to it facing the other direction.
Tear the dates into thin strips and scatter the strips over the salad(s). Drain
the onion slices, pat them dry with paper towels, and scatter over the
salad(s). Sprinkle the thyme and coarsely grind pepper over the salad(s), and
serve.
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