My New Favorite Summer Salad
Whenever there's a small dinner party with friends, I kind of dork out. There, I've said it.
So not surprising, when Pete suggested having dinner at his house, I went to work. He foolishly assumed that I'd bring dishes already premade, but alas, he was wrong, and I may have done some non-permanent damage to his kitchen. It was worth it - I made the very excellent grilled vegetable bread salad and satisfying blueberry cobbler. Thanks to Paul for cooking the vegetables, and helping to cement the vegetable salad as one of my favorite recipes of the summer (made even better by the fact that all of the ingredients can be found at my local farmer's market).
Here's the grilled vegetable salad recipe, from Cooks Illustrated. First, dressing. Lemon juice, balsamic vinegar, garlic, olive oil, dijon mustard, fresh thyme, salt, pepper. Then, cut up, mix, olive oil up and grill bell peppers, red onions, zucchini and eggplant (my favorite); when done, toss with some dressing. Also, toss spring lettuce with the dressing. Think ratatouille, minus the basil. Also, grill a piece of bread along the way. On a pretty plate, layer the bread, lettuce and vegetables, top with shaved parmesan and enjoy the deliciousness.
I liked the summer salad so much, the next day, I cleaned out the fridge, went to the store and made a super gigantic batch. I've made two salads, and last night, tried to make a dent in my phyllo dough (long story, never get recipe inspirations after a few too many greyhounds when you live within stumbling distance of a grocery store) by wrapping the vegetables and a generous portion of goat cheese in the dough. Delicious.
Sadly, my salad pictures did not turn out. But, here are some of the phyllo dough pics for you to envision and think about (plus, if you're really curious, either come to my house for dinner and let me recreate, or look at the Cooks Illustrated picture).
I also have enough vegetables left for something else. I'm thinking a spin of Carrie's vegetable tart, with pie dough wrapped around the veggies and cheese.
