Crunch time for bright carrot salad
If you take carrots for granted — slicing and steaming them to accompany a roast, or serving as crudités with celery sticks and a dip, or eating plain at a picnic — then here is a fresh idea.
This salad is from Giada’s Italy: My Recipes for La Dolce Vita, the new cookbook by Giada De Laurentiis (Clarkson Potter/Penguin Random House, $47).
With carrots at their best now, the TV chef suggests upgrading from the usual salad — mayonnaise and raisins — by adding dried cranberries and goat cheese.
Her other salad ideas make interesting use of late-summer foods.
She combines romaine, radicchio, cucumber, basil and avocado and tosses the mixture with a vinaigrette containing freshly grated Parmesan cheese.
Corn kernels make a dish that the patrons of her Las Vegas restaurant like: crisp-fried pancetta with chopped fennel, the corn (frozen, if local has run out) and two cheeses — mascarpone and grated Parmesan.
A trip back to her birthplace, Rome, has inspired more than 100 lively, userfriendly recipes, many with succulent photographs by Aubrie Pick.
ITALIAN CARROT SALAD
Serves: 4
1/3 cup (80 mL) limoncello (If you use a substitute for this Italian liqueur, try lemon concentrate or syrup)
1/2 cup (125 mL) dried cranberries
1 1/2 lbs (680 g) or
4 1/2 cups (1.125 L) carrots, peeled
1 tsp (5 mL) kosher or coarse salt
1/2 cup (125 mL) fresh flatleaf parsley leaves, coarsely chopped
2 tbsp (30 mL) fresh lemon juice
3 tbsp (45 mL) extravirgin olive oil
2 oz (60 g) soft goat cheese
1. In a small saucepan, gently warm the limoncello over medium heat until steam begins to rise from the pan. It should be hot to the touch but not simmering.
2. Remove from heat, add cranberries and cover. Let stand for at least 30 minutes or up to an hour. Drain and set aside.
3. Grate the carrots into a medium bowl, using the large holes on a box grater. Season with salt, tossing well.
4. Toss in the soaked cranberries, parsley, lemon juice and oil.
5. Serve with the goat cheese crumbled over the top.