Attempting to Replicate Pizzaiolo's Salad

Although I would never make a great food blogger due to the fact that I often fail to remember to take photos when I go out to eat, I do like coming home and trying to reconstruct recipes of things that I tried elsewhere that I liked. Yes, I am a shameless idea-stealer in that regard.

For example, the other night, I attempted to recreate the yummy salad I had at Pizzaiolo where I interrogated my friend about his engagement status. Theirs was a faro salad; I made mine with hulled barley, but it came pretty close. Or perhaps I am flattering myself, but I liked the nutty taste and the combination of flavors that resulted.

I combined cooked hulled barley with fresh corn kernels, cherry tomatoes (the bigger ones chopped in half so the juices mix), toasted pine nuts, dressed it with olive oil and vinegar, then sprinkled shaved pecorino cheese over this, and put all this on a bed of arugula taken from my garden.

Voila.
The toasted pine nuts were my addition, but I have been putting toasted pine nuts in everything lately, and am convinced that they go well with everything, especially salad-type stuff.

Cherries in a savory dish

Cherries are finally in season! Hurray! Now that apples are about to go out of season, I need other easy, colorful and yummy things to make with seasonal ingredients. This cherry crostini recipe fits the bill.

This cherry crostini takes about 20 minutes to assemble (maybe more--I cheated, b/c I already had the cream cheese made and the watercress washed and chopped up), and 5 minutes to eat, but is fully worth it. It is a winning recipe from one of our iron chef parties.

Need:
spreadable cream cheese (low or fully fatted)
dill
finely chopped walnuts
thinly sliced slightly stale (or toasted) baguette
watercress
chopped cherries

You mix the cream cheese with dill and walnuts (to taste), then spread a thin layer of this over the slightly stale baguette, then put watercress on top, and then top with cherries. I used brooks cherries in this photo, but you can use any kind, really. I also like them with rainiers. Make sure you admire the vibrant colors before you eat. Oh, and if you're a slob like me, make sure you are not wearing white when you eat this.

It probably sounds weird to combine dill with cherries, but I found that the combination of the strongly flavored dill, the nutty walnuts, the bitter watercress and the sweet cherries works really well.

Bon appetit!