Last week seemed to be very task- and deadline-oriented. I literally felt driven, and a little panicked, panicked enough that sleep was fitful and I felt always behind. I took off two days for visiting family and felt like I was behind for a week. Can I handle a trip at Thanksgiving? Can I balance it all, the hopes of family, the need to spend time separate from all of this with my spouse, the need to keep his life as calm and balanced as possible, and still get everything done? Can I do all of this and still sleep at night?
I don't know.
Yesterday, I came in rushed and harried, plagued by phone calls, plagued by things I hadn't done, and by things that have yet to be done. I came in and made lunch, which was basically pretty simple: burgers and a salad. But sometimes just working in the kitchen calms me. Measuring, chopping, stirring — these things force me to slow down, to concentrate on what I am doing and let everything else slide away. And of course the results are good too.
This salad was adapted from a recipe by Mario Battali that appeared in the October 2010 Food & Wine magazine. I reduced the quantities from 6 to 2 servings and in doing so also changed the proportions somewhat.
Roasted Red Pepper and Anchovy Salad
serves 2
1/2 red bell pepper (halved lengthwise)
1/2 yellow bell pepper (halved lengthwise)
3 Sicilian green olives, seeded
3 anchovy fillets
1 teaspoon capers
12 fresh rosemary leaves
1 teaspoon sherry vinegar
2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
crumbled goat cheese
Place the peppers on a baking sheet, cut side down, and place under the broiler until the skin is charred. Let cool. Discard the skin as well as the stems and seeds if you have roasted whole peppers. Cut the peppers into long strips.
Chop the olives, anchovies, rosemary leaves, and capers together until minced and well blended together. Place this mixture in a medium bowl and add the vinegar and olive oil. Stir to blend, then gently fold in the pepper slices, being careful not to break up the peppers.
Divide the salad between two plates and top with goat cheese.
——
The original recipe called for about 1 1/3 ounces of soft goat cheese per person and the instructions said to crumble the goat cheese on the salads. The goat cheese I had didn't crumble; it was too soft. Instead of crumbles I had soft pillowy lumps. I also used less cheese, about 1 ounce between the two salads, although if I had had a crumbly cheese I might have used more. Either way it tasted fine.
I will probably make this salad again tomorrow, using the other half peppers, serving it on a bed of baby arugula.
Comments
9 responses to “Roasted Pepper and Anchovy Salad”
That salad is so delicious-looking… And I know you are going to keep it together. (The Hows are dicey, but you do it again and again.) Maybe a bit of warm milk and a small, medicinal shot of something boozy will help with the sleep for the next week or so? Not that I’m advocating alcohol to fix things…
I like anchovies!
Could be that you need some zingier food?
Thanks, Kristin. Warm milk and alcohol sounds lovely, doesnt it?
Rose, always good to hear from another anchovy lover.
That salad looks divine, and very much like what I ought to be planning for dinner given that we both indulged in Pistachio gelato in San Francisco earlier :).
I know what you mean about the holidays. It’s always difficult. I too have a tendency to fret, but somehow it always works out well.
We make a version of this by halving the red peppers, brushing w/ olive oil, placing anchovy filet on inner side, sprinkling with dried herbs and baking inner side up, 350F; 40 min. or so. (There is no cheese.) Kind of a cheat of your version.
Have also made it using proscuitto instead of anchovy. We serve it as a light first course or for lunch with salad and bread.
Wow, Duchesse, that sounds good. I have a couple of slices of prosciutto left over from something else (as well as part of a can of anchovies) so I will try this as well, in a couple of iterations.
Susan, pistachio gelato sounds divine
Num! We do a pasta that uses this combination, but have never thought of a salad. And I have 5 red peppers in the fridge as we speak (there was a sale of hothouse-grown local beauties and I couldn’t resist). So thanks much for the inspiration. . . maybe I’ll get the Mr. to make up some bread to go with. Numm!