Where we live you can find a great farmer’s market most days of the week if you are willing to drive a little bit. Today we went to our local farmer’s market and came home with ingredients to make a hot weather salad for our dinner.
The focus of our meal was going to be a red currant vinaigrette. We couldn’t resist them when we saw them at the market nestled in amongst the blueberries.
We began by muddling the red currants in a mortar with a pestle.
As we were using this in a vinaigrette we decided to pass it through a sieve once it was all muddled together.
Once it passed through the sieve we added some vegetable oil, Dijon mustard, salt, pepper and a splash of white wine.
We whisked it all together and were left with a creamy pink vinaigrette which was so lovely in taste and not at all tart.
We used our vinaigrette with a salad of purple beans, lettuce and caramelized red onion and pepper.
We tossed the salad leaves in the dressing and then piled the rest of the vegetables on top. We finished this with a few more berries and a peeling of parmesan.
A great tip we got years ago when watching an Ina Garten show is that if you put the vinaigrette in the bottom of the mixing bowl (or salad bowl) and then pour your leaves on top you can leave the leaves there until you are ready to serve at which point you can toss the salad leaves into the dressing. This prevents them from getting soggy.
We loved this salad for dinner. The tart red currant was perfect mixed in amongst the salad which included salty prosciutto. The dressing coated each leaf and was light and bright. The caramelized onion and pepper added a sweetness that was very complimentary of the other flavors. This was easy and perfect for such a hot night.
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