Cooking with "In the Kitchen with a Good Appetite" by Melissa

Raw Tuscan Kale Salad with Chiles and Pecorino p.63

I found myself a few minutes from the Farmer's Market that was sure to have Tuscan Kale so I decided to take the plunge. The kale ($1.50) was lovely.

The recipe calls for the dressing to be made separately in a bowl but I made it directly in the large bowl I was going to toss the kale in so as not to lose any bits and to even further simplify things. I did not have pecorino so I did sub a nutty asiago. After letting it rest the requisite initial 5 minutes I sampled directly from the bowl.

Verdict: really good - I could have put a serious dent in the huge bowl but I wanted to give it some more resting time. An hour later I sampled again and realized that the cold had muted the flavors. After letting it come to room temp, it was even better for its rest. The recipe calls for the salad to be served with toasted bread crumbs, preferably from whole wheat or rye. I had no bread in the house, so taking a cue from her raw brussels sprouts variation I toasted a few walnuts, smashed them with my handy kitchen brick, and tossed them over for an experiment. They were mildly interesting but I preferred the simpler form. I might try it next time with the bread crumbs, or using pecorino versus the asiago, but I really like it as is.