Saturday 30 March 2013

Open Sesame!

Insalata di Puntarelle, Portolacca, Ravanello con Salsa di Sesamo
Puntarelle, Portulac & Radish Salad with Sesame Dressing


It was still freezing cold here in Frankfurt today... but for the first time in ages it was also sunny and bright! So despite the cold, I decided to try to make a dish more suited to Springtime than Winter- especially as the first young and tender radishes are in season, the delicious "portulac" lettuce looked excellent- and more than anything, because there were wonderful deep green "punterelle" on offer again at the market hall.

This time, I decided to make a slightly richer dressing than usual, using Tahini, honey and mustard to make it thick and creamy... that combined with some fresh lemon juice was the perfect addition to the slightly bitter puntarelle, the mild but peppery portulac and the crunchy little radishes...


Basically, all that I needed to do here was to wash, dry and arrange the salad ingredients on a plate and then stir together a dressing. For the dressing, I used 3 tablespoons of olive oil, 1 tablespoon of mustard, 1 tablespoon of honey, 1 teaspoon of Tahini, salt, pepper and a good squeeze of lemon juice. I added just a little water to these ingredients, stirred it together gently and then shook the jar vigorously, in order to blend together all of the ingredients of the dressing.

And yes, basically- that was all! I poured the dressing over the salad and added a generous sprinkle of toasted sesame for some extra taste and texture. Perfect. Sometimes nature has everything already sorted and all we need to do is assist a little- and of course, more than anything else... to enjoy!

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