“Soup, Salad, and Breadsticks”
We became the Olive Garden restaurant tonight—at least that was the inspiration.
I built three “dishes,” plus we augmented that with a pre-made blueberry pie for dessert. A prodigious meal, by the time it ended.
Breadsticks
Simple: I halved a French-style baguette, and topped it with EVOO, salt, pepper, and garlic. I augmented one slice with bleu cheese. It was served alongside both the salad and the soup.
Salad
The salad was a big deal, and was served second, after the soup (below).
A composed salad is simply one that builds on layers, not unlike a trifle. This one had a myriad variety of ingredients, leaning on Italian influences. Seen above were the Easter radishes that crowned the lettuces.
We made a house dressing using dried Italian herbs, spicy sweet mustard, EVOO, and red wine/pomegranate vinegar, salt, and pepper.
Carmelized onions were next (above), and below, we add heirloom tomatoes.
Finally, we added more ingredients, including applewood-smoked bacon, artichoke hearts, marinated mozzarella balls, roasted red peppers, and bleu cheese.
Topping all of that was two Italian salumi: spicy and sweet. This salad was simply delicious. A real winner among MessyChef salads.
Asparagus Soup
We also wanted a simple soup. I used the other half of the onion from the salad, and sweated that with garlic in butter; I added in stages an entire bunch of asparagus.
Chicken stock and water added flavor to the soup.
The important part is to add the asparagus from the stem-end first, then work your way up to the tips over time. You want the roasted flavor from the first cut, but the bright green from the rest. We puréed the mixture in a blender and combined that with half a small carton of heavy cream.
I supplanted the natural flavors with chili, cayenne, and salt and pepper when the onions were getting started. I like smooth soups; but then you wonder, what is in it? We finished the soup with three flourishes: fresh lemon juice, then sautéed asparagus tips with garlic in bacon fat. I like to remind folks what the flavor is, and some nicely crisped asparagus tips did the job.
As Rachel Ray might say: Yummo!
Great friends to share the enthusiasm of food with helped make the meal special, along with our normal good conversation. The only bad part of the meal was losing some games of Wii tennis. I needed practice!
March 18th, 2008 at 9:13 am
a lovely meal, paired with … a Coke?
March 18th, 2008 at 5:35 pm
I was not in charge of drinks. Asparagus is difficult to pair with wine; and the salad, I would have paired with a rosé. But Caff-Free Diet Coke is my favorite beverage, so I won’t complain.