Tuscan Salad - Joie De Vivre

SS loves his Italian food and wine. French v. Italian wine is a source of constant debate in our household, or at any family dinner. A great alternative now is to head to the tip of the world- New Zealand. It solves all differences. Gorgeous Pinot Noirs and floral bouquets radiate from the Sauvignon Blancs. We enjoyed a Mahi Pinor Noir 2008 on the Easter Weekend in the wilderness at Kanha National Park. If you ever go to NZ, do yourself a HUGE favour and get yourself a bottle. I guarantee you it won’t last the journey back. (And while you’re at it, I would love one too!) Heaven in a glass. Literally.

So the next stop after the wine is decided is the salad. I came from a house that termed ‘salad’ as stalks of carrots, cucumbers and horseradish. Armed with a little book called 101 Veggie Recipes, published by BBC and Good Food Magazine which I stumbled upon one afternoon while combing the book section at Selfridges, the family’s notion of salad was never going to be the same again. My first triumph (which I am sharing with you today) was this Tuscan Salad. I made this 5-6 years ago for the first time and it’s been an unfaltering success every time. It’s a simple, hearty salad. Big enough for a meal, and be sure to end with a guilt free desert. After all, all you ate for dinner was salad!

Wash and de-seed one red and one yellow pepper. Chop them into inch squares and lay them out skin down on a foil lined baking sheet. Put a drop of good quality olive oil and a drop of good quality balsamic vinegar on each piece. Grill/bake them in the oven for 5-7 minutes, or until the corners get a bit charred and the peppers go a bit soft and you can hear the beautiful sizzle. Carefully remove from the oven and put into a small container and pop into the freezer to chill it before it joins the rest of the party in the bowl.

While the grill is hot, roughly tear or chop half a loaf of the ciabatta (into large bite size pieces) and grill for a few minutes, just letting the tops go golden brown. Toast a handful of pine nuts in a non-stick pan and combine with the bread and keep aside.

Cut 4-5 tomatoes (pick the reddest ones from the lot) into half, then dice each half into 3/4 inch quarters. Roughly chop a generous handful of fresh basil. Combine in a large enough salad bowl. Add a few teaspoons of marinated capers and marinated black olives (I prefer the pitted variety). Set to chill.

Now for the dressing. Its surprisingly simple since the rest of the salad has so much character to it, and you don’t want yo overshadow the freshness and vivacious characters going into this salad with an overpowering dressing. Just grate a small clove of garlic into 2 tablespoons of good quality olive oil, add a tablespoon of good quality red wine vinegar (the original recipe calls for sauvignon blanc, but i just have the regular red wine vinegar and it seems to taste JUST fine!). season with a good helping of sea salt and freshly ground pepper.

Combine the dressing with the tomatoes, olives, capers, peppers, bread and pine nuts. Toss in the basil. Add 2 tablespoons of crumbled dry goats cheese. Last night i had a few large and rather inviting avocados left over from the mexican dinner party the night before, so tempted as i admittedly was, i spiked the salad with an avocado. and it just added wonders!!

I ate 2 bowls of it for dinner. And no, I didn’t get any hunger pangs at all in the middle of the night. The salad is wonderfully satiating and makes you feel proud of yourself for successfully eating just a salad for dinner, but quite a salad it is!

I forgot to take pictures while making the salad, and i only managed to get a few shots after eating half of it!! I promise to take a few and upload them the next time I make it. For now, these will just have to suffice!

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Feeds 4-5