Aroused by Arugula

When I was growing up dinners in my house always involved lots of side dishes. My mom would orchestrate a symphony of recipes: chopping vegetables while the water was coming to a boil for pasta and the chicken was simmering in a lovely lemon-wine sauce. She would have one steamer heating up and another going full steam with four large artichokes cooking away. She would turn off the chicken and artichokes and let them sit while tossing a salad. When the pasta water and steamer were roiling, she’d add the angel hair to the water and the broccoli to the steamer. It would be a frenzy for a few moments but would all come together just about when my dad would walk in the door. It was quite a production.

No matter how crazy it got, we always seemed to have salad. Back then, iceberg lettuce was the bed for an array of other vegetables. Although, at the time I wasn’t too keen on the veggies we ate—most were weeks old and still tasting of the wax and chemical coatings that preserved them during transit from some farm thousands of miles away—so I would smother them in Catalina dressing (the sweet red stuff).

My dinners are a bit different these days. We don’t have quite as many side dishes and the quality of the ingredients is much better—thank-you, Slow Food. And we still eat salads with most meals. In fact, my six-year-old oftentimes prefers salad to the main dish. Maybe it’s because of the fantastic Annie’s dressing or maybe it’s because our vegetables are better quality. There’s nothing like organic, locally grown, fresh picked tomatoes. Add some shredded carrots, red beats, marinated button mushrooms, pignolis, and some shaved Romano cheese, and the salad is delectable. And definitely, we’ve improved on the lettuce—no more iceberg. Don’t get me wrong, I like the crispy crunch of iceberg, but I prefer butter lettuce, Swiss chard, endive, and arugula, among others. While butter lettuce is my favorite, arugula, aka “garden rocket,” adds such a nice rich peppery taste. Its strong flavor adds a nice contrast to the other vegetables in a green salad. Full of vitamin C,  potassium, and lactucarium (or “lettuce opium”), arugula is considered an aphrodisiac according to Dr. Julie Upton. Now my salads can turn me on even without being smothered in dressing.

Geoffrey

Here’s a great recipe from Chef Keith Snow’s The Harvest Eating Cookbook. You can see Keith on harvesteating.com, roku.com, and coming soon on RFDTV.com.





Arugula Salad
Photo by Travis Runion

 Arugula Salad

Makes 4 servings

2 bunches arugula

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

Kosher salt, to taste

Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

1/4 cup toasted pine nuts (on a baking sheet in a 250° oven for 10 minutes)

Parmesan cheese

1.  Wash and spin dry the arugula. Reserve in a salad bowl.

2.  Make the vinaigrette by combining the vinegars and olive oil and whisking to emulsify. Season the greens directly with salt and pepper and toss gently with the vinaigrette. Add the toasted pine nuts.

3.  Divide the salad among four plates. With your vegetable peeler, make long shavings of Parmesan and arrange on top of each salad. Drizzle a little extra balsamic vinegar over the cheese.