Olla-Podrida: Pistachio Vinaigrette

Friday, September 8, 2017

Heirloom Tomato Salad with Green Beans

I LOVE tomatoes, heirloom tomatoes in particular, and use them as often as I can. They appeal not only to my sense of taste, but also to my artistic nature; I simply love all of the wonderful, earthy colors. I'm happy enough just to eat them on their own, but I do like to create new recipes in order to showcase their varied tones.

Here is a simple salad recipe for you, tomato salad with green beans. You read that right, green beans. You can use fresh ones that have been cooked (or blanched if you like your green beans a bit on the crunchy side), or canned. Both taste equally good. I find green to be the perfect backdrop for the tomatoes, because it really makes their colors pop. I like to serve this with homemade vinaigrette (I used a creamy version here and loved it) and lately I've been hooked on pistachios. But, feel free to use your own favorite vinaigrette dressing, or even a bottled one. They all work, because the tomatoes are the stars here. This makes an excellent summer side dish, and is perfect to take to a picnic, or barbecue. It's summery, fresh, and always delicious.

Heirloom Tomato Salad with Green Beans

1 container Melissa’s baby heirloom tomatoes, halved
1 15-ounce can cut green beans (or an equal amount of fresh cooked)
2 cups fresh baby spiach

1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil
1 tablespoon drained capers
1/4 cup grated fresh Parmesan cheese
1/2 small red onion, cut into thin slices
Salt and pepper to taste
Your favorite vinaigrette

Toss all ingredients together in a large bowl, refrigerate for at least one hour to meld flavors. This keeps for 1 to 3 days refrigerated.

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Saturday, May 20, 2017

Pistachio Vinaigrette

Last month, Lennie, a good friend of Jim's and mine, took me to dinner at one of my favorite places. It was something I was kind of dreading because this had always been Jim and my place. It was where we went to celebrate almost every birthday I had while we were married. (If you read this blog regularly, you know that Lennie is a widower, and our good baseball buddy who would come over a couple of times a week for dinner and to watch the game). As it turned out, despite my trepidation, it was a lovely evening; we had a delicious meal, and enjoyed each other's company. I'm glad that he took me, it was a very sweet thing to do, and now that I've broken the ice, it'll be easier to go back to my favorite place. My point in telling you all of this is that we ordered a salad as a first course, and it came dressed with pistachio vinaigrette. It was sensational! Ever since that evening I have been searching for a recipe for pistachio vinaigrette that is as good as the one we had that night.

I found a variety of them and, after a bit of experimentation, came up with what I think is the apex of pistachio vinaigrette dressings. It is wonderful on a salad of nothing more than spring lettuce. If you want to get fancy, add some very thinly sliced shiitake mushrooms, paper-thin slices of red onion, and be sure to top off your salad, no matter what you do, with chopped pistachios. This is easy enough for every day, but fancy enough for company. If you can't get pistachio oil locally (an absolute must for this dressing), you can get it here. I highly recommend the purchase; it makes a world of difference.

Pistachio Vinaigrette

4 tablespoons canola oil
2 tablespoons pistachio oil
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons crushed pistachios
2 tablespoons minced chives
Salt and Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Blend together the first four ingredients. (I used a bullet blender because nothing emulsifies a salad dressing like a bullet blender.) Stir in the pistachios, chives, and salt and pepper to taste. This recipe can be doubled, tripled, quadrupled, well, you get the picture. It's delicious, so trust me you're going to want to make as much as possible.