After both growing up with the same turkey with sage stuffing, sweet potatoes with marshmallow topping and green bean casserole every year, my sister-in-law Nancy and I made a pact that our Thanksgiving tradition would be to never make the same recipe twice. As a result, come mid-October, we compulsively check our mailboxes until finally the November issue of Bon Appetit arrives. Together we pour over the lists of menus and recipes. Our husbands are consulted and we pull together what we hope will be a fabulous menu. Shopping lists are made, shopping dates arranged and long loving hours are spent concocting a beautiful meal that takes on average 20 minutes to consume. I love the entire process and wouldn't dream of giving it up in a million years. However, by the Saturday after Thanksgiving I'm done with turkey for the year and I'm also ready to enjoy some time outside the kitchen.
This is when I turn to the simple things in life.
A few weeks earlier we'd been to a local restaurant and had a simple and delicious salad of bresaola with arugula. I was on the hunt to recreate it. Hmmm, where am I going to find bresaola in SLO County? One of the great benefits of living on the Central Coast is the availability of fresh ingredients. The downside is the scarcity of exotic or international ingredients. Things like empanada skins and guanciale are non-existent in the county.
An email to Devon netted me a sarcastic "Bresaola in SLO? Yeah, right!". This resigned me to postpone my re-creation until I could make it up to San Francisco. I added it to my shopping list along with the empananda skins and guanciale. Then the call came - Devon had happened upon a local restaurant that sells bresaola! In a foiled attempt to purchase the bresaola from Devon's source I actually found a second source in SLO!
Bresaola in hand I set about recreating this delicious, simple salad. Now, if I can just locate a local source for the empananda skins and guanicale...
Bresaola Salad
Fortunately thinly sliced bresaola goes a long way as you can expect to pay upwards of $20 a pound for it. A quarter of a pound should be plenty for about 6 salads.
1/4 lb bresaola (Muzio's or Luna Red in SLO)
baby arugula
good quality olive oil
Parmesan cheese
lemon wedges
This is when I turn to the simple things in life.
A few weeks earlier we'd been to a local restaurant and had a simple and delicious salad of bresaola with arugula. I was on the hunt to recreate it. Hmmm, where am I going to find bresaola in SLO County? One of the great benefits of living on the Central Coast is the availability of fresh ingredients. The downside is the scarcity of exotic or international ingredients. Things like empanada skins and guanciale are non-existent in the county.
An email to Devon netted me a sarcastic "Bresaola in SLO? Yeah, right!". This resigned me to postpone my re-creation until I could make it up to San Francisco. I added it to my shopping list along with the empananda skins and guanciale. Then the call came - Devon had happened upon a local restaurant that sells bresaola! In a foiled attempt to purchase the bresaola from Devon's source I actually found a second source in SLO!Bresaola in hand I set about recreating this delicious, simple salad. Now, if I can just locate a local source for the empananda skins and guanicale...
Bresaola Salad
Fortunately thinly sliced bresaola goes a long way as you can expect to pay upwards of $20 a pound for it. A quarter of a pound should be plenty for about 6 salads.
1/4 lb bresaola (Muzio's or Luna Red in SLO)
baby arugula
good quality olive oil
Parmesan cheese
lemon wedges
Place 4 or 5 slices of bresaola directly onto a salad plate and add a big handful of arugula on top of the meat. Drizzle with good quality olive oil and shave some parmesan on to the arugula. Serve with a lemon wedge to be squeezed over the top just prior to eating.
Personally I think the pepper of the arugula and saltiness of the meat and cheese is seasoning enough, but you may want to add a bit of one or both to suit your taste.
Sit down, relax and enjoy!
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