Wednesday, May 26, 2010

May 26th - Warm Spinach Salad with Parmeasn

YAWN!
If a recipe could embody the lack of enthusiasm as demonstrated by yesterday's post, this would be the blue ribbon winner.  When I tasted this salad the words "ho-hum", "boring", and "lackluster" come to mind.  Yeah, it could be the snobby chef in me coming out.  But really folks, this salad is nothing more than a bowl of spinach with a warmed up balsamic dressing thrown on top.  They're adding the nuts and Parmesan to "fancy" it up, but really, you've got a basic spinach salad with boring-ness thrown in. (I'm sure there is a pig and lipstick joke somewhere in there).   I mean COME ON.  Speaking of pigs, how about some bacon?  Bon Appetit you could have at least gone with a warm bacon dressing on this one.  

I can't be too upset.  Everyone has those days where they don't want to work to hard.  For example, me, yesterday with this blog.  Today, Bon Appetit, I'm letting you off the hook on this one and chalking it up to a lazy day.

I suppose we should just get on with this as a formality.

THE RECIPE
Ingredients:
Spinach: $2.10
Radicchio: $1.02
Olive oil: Had
Balsamic: had
Red Wine: had
Shallot: $0.89
Almonds: had
Parmesan: had

Total: $4.01

I'm sorry, but I was not going to spend a small fortune to buy pine nuts for this droll recipe.  I went with some slivered almonds which I had in the freezer. 

THE RESULTS

FAST:  The salad takes less than 10 minutes to make.  That includes the time you have to let the warm dressing sit in the spinach, the time it takes to make the dressing, and the time it took to toast the nuts in a pan on the stove top.

EASY:  We've discussed this before, but toasting nuts in a saute pan can be a little difficult.  You definitely never want to leave the kitchen or turn your back for too long on those guys.  They'll turn to charcoal in less than a few minutes.

FRESH:  Yeah, I guess.  You've got fresh spinach and radicchio. 

OVERALL:  Well I think you all know how I feel on this one.  LAME!  Seriously, I would have gone with a warm bacon dressing.  At least that would be a little more fun than a boring balsamic vinaigrette. 

Well, I'm out of here.  I'm going to get some Mexican food with Brian.  A new Mexican restaurant opened up in the neighborhood and I've been wanting to try it for days now.   Hasta mañana!  See ya then!

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