Tyler Florence's Peach, Mozzarella and Crispy Prosciutto Salad

Here's another salad for you courtesy of the farmers' market.  Work is busy enough that I only have the opportunity to cook/eat 1-2 meals per week at home so I really want to take advantage of the produce at the farmers' market and make great meals when I can.  This salad started with the peaches.  I love the smell of fresh peaches, but I just can't get into eating them solo.  It's the fuzz on the skin that really throws me.  But when you combine fresh peaches with other ingredients in a salad or crostini I really enjoy it.  Go figure.  I was going to make this Grilled Peach Panzanella Salad but I thought it would be fun to try something new.  Since I really liked the combination of prosciutto, peaches and dairy in the crostini I wanted to make a salad that used those ingredients.  This Tyler Florence recipe fit the bill perfectly.  It wasn't the most amazing salad we have made but it was fun and different.  I liked the crispy prosciutto and the fennel.  We don't use fennel a lot, but it is really growing on me.  The anise flavor and the crunch of the fennel works beautifully in a salad.  While the salad was nice, it didn't really come together for me.  If you had a bite with equivalent amounts of every single ingredient in it, it wasn't bad, but if you had a bite without the prosciutto it lacked seasoning/salt.  It was still yummy, but it wasn't quite as delicious as I had hoped for. 

I'm hoping that work will slow down enough for us to make a few more farmers' market-inspired meals.  At the very least I have a few more to post about, including the Corn Som Tam with Rock Shrimp we made this afternoon.

Recipe after the jump.

Mediterranean Salad with Prosciutto and Pomegranate

I have to be honest - sometimes I make food because it is just too darn pretty to resist.  Look at this salad for one.  My picture doesn't do it justice, but if you check out the original recipe at Bon Appetit and the version from Smitten Kitchen, it's just gorgeous and so very festive - I love the colors of the white bowl or platter, the greens, the proscuitto and the pomegranate.  And I love the combination of proscuitto and fruit, whether it's pomegranate or melon.  The fennel made me a little nervous because neither Alex nor I is particularly enamored of the licorice/anise flavor of fennel, but sometimes you have to live a little.  When I was thinking of a salad to go with the Spicy Chickpea Soup I was making for dinner I jumped at the opportunity to make this one and then didn't bother to tell Alex what I was making, except to say that he would like it because it includes one of his favorite ingredients.  I believe Alex said something along the lines of "sure" and then went back to fighting the good fight with Turbotax.  When I put the salad out on the dinner table I was hoping that it was every bit as tasty as it looked and it absolutely was.  The pomegranate seeds gave the salad a wonderfully sweet and tart flavor that balanced nicely against the salty porky flavor of the prosciutto and the anise flavor of the fennel.  For those of you who might worry about the inclusion of the fennel, I think that tossing it in evoo and salt prior to adding it into the salad mellowed out the intense flavor of the fennel.  I was pleasantly surprised by how well it worked in the salad. 

And given how much we both liked the salad, I think it definitely made the cut for recipes that we will making again in the future.  I would definitely serve this salad for company (or for the holidays) because it looks and tastes fancy, even though it is supremely easy to throw together.  I know this is completely superficial but it would look so perfect on the table for Christmas dinner or any dinner party, and sometimes, you just want to look perfect.

Recipe after the jump!

Spaghetti con la Sarde

Sardines are one of the few ingredients that just sound gross, kind of like anchovies.  They bring to mind slimy, icky little fish.  But both (while not visually appealing) can be quite delicious if prepared correctly.  Anyway, I saw this recipe in Molto Gusto awhile ago and figured we had to try it.  You can buy tins of really nice sardines at most gourmet grocery stores (including Whole Foods) nowadays, and I picked up a tin not too long ago without really having any idea what I wanted to do with it.  Once I saw this recipe I decided it sounded like the perfect recipe to use those sardines.

The first thing Alex said when he tried the pasta was that it was "good and... interesting."  He's right in that it is a very interesting combination of flavors.  Who has ever heard of combining fennel, fennel seeds, fennel fronds, orange zest, sardines and bread crumbs?  The second thing he said (which I also agreed with) was that the pasta wasn't as flavorful as we had thought it would be.  With that amount of fennel in it, I really expected some serious anise flavor, but the fennel flavor was really mild.  Perhaps if I had added the optional fennel pollen, it would have seriously upped the level of anise flavor?  I don't know.  I also didn't think that you could taste the sardines as much as I wanted to.  Perhaps the fault is due to the fact that we used whole wheat spaghetti, which I find requires more aggressive seasoning and more in your face flavors to really make it shine.  I thought that the fennel (which I actually worried would be overpowering) and the sardines would provide tons of flavor, but the flavor combination was more subtle than I had envisioned.  Once thing that I did love about the recipe was the addition of the fresh bread crumbs, toasted in evoo.  Generally I am far too lazy to bother making fresh bread crumbs, making due with panko or Progresso Italian-flavored bread crumbs, but in this case I think that fresh bread crumbs were well worth the effort.

Recipe after the jump!
 

Misticanza

I am a big believer that sometimes you just need particular things.  Sometimes you just need a big huge bowl of salad.  Other times you need a big, greasy burger and french fries.  Sometimes you really just need a fabulous pair of shoes, but that is beside the point.  I guess I am am a believer that you should eat everything in moderation, but if you really need or want something, I say go for it.  While my wants/needs aren't always healthy, I figure they balance out okay in the end (although you periodically have to do the "are my pants getting snug?" readjustment).  Take today's lunch for example.  After feasting on chicken, vegetables, and bread from last night's Roasted Chicken with Vegetables, what I really wanted for lunch was a big bowl of salad.  And some hummus and pita to round the whole lunch out.  The craving for salad was helped along by the knowledge that for tonight's dinner we were going to clog our arteries with some pork belly adobo.  So I started looking through random cookbooks for ideas on what kind of salad to make based on the ingredients we have in the fridge, and I found this recipe for misticanza in Molto Gusto.  I love arugula salads, and we had both radishes and fennel in the fridge so I was totally on board.  Luckily Alex agreed to go along for the ride.  Given the combination of ingredients we knew that there was little chance that we would love the salad, but I would give it a solid like.  It was different.  And interesting.  But you had to make sure you got a little bit of everything in every bite, because the whole was more than the sum of its parts.  Each individual part was a little boring, but together it was a nice salad with an interesting combination of ingredients.

Recipe after the jump!