"arugula" news and stories

Each Thursday, we round up a selection of scrumptious links from our friends over at YumSugar. Here's what they've got cooking this week:

A sausage ricotta arugula pizza will cure hump-day doldrums.

Poll: Who doesn't like cooking with animal fat? Bacon, anyone?

Iron Chef Michael Symon cooks breakfast at Williams-Sonoma to promote his new cookbook, co-authored by Michael Ruhlman.

Transform Thanksgiving leftovers -- odds are you still have some -- into a Kentucky Hot Brown sandwich.

Test your knowledge of Texas' beloved Dr Pepper.

Once the food coma of Thanksgiving passes, it's time to consider Christmas foods.

Stuff stockings with these essential food-inspired gift ideas.

Can you identify spring vegetables? Take this spring vegetable identification quiz on Slashfood to find out.

Don't be mislead by the image you see above. I really do recommend making this salad with arugula, I just wasn't able to find a picture of it from the time I made it that way, so you'll have to imagine arugula (or mixed greens, if you prefer) in place of the chopped romaine.

Arugula, Goat Cheese and Pomegranate Salad

1 big handful of arugula per person at your dinner
1 slivered red onion
1 package of chevre-style goat cheese (about two inches per person is what I tend to do)
the seeds of one pomegranate (think 1 pomegranate for ever four people)

Honey Lemon Vinaigrette

1/2 cup lemon juice (2-3 large lemons)
zest from one of the lemons (zest prior to squeezing juice - it's much easier)
2 tablespoons honey
pinch of kosher salt
4-5 grinds of black pepper
1 cup olive oil

Mix lemon juice, honey and zest together in a medium sized bowl and stir until the honey dissolves into the lemon juice. Add salt and pepper. Slowly stream in olive oil as you whisk, until the oil is all incorporated. Store in a jar with a tight fitting lid until you're ready to serve, so that you can shake it to reincorporate.

Assembly

Heap the greens in a large salad bowl. Scatter the onion slices around (you don't have to use a whole onion's worth if you aren't a fan). Top with dollops of goat cheese and then scatter the pomegranate seeds on top. Just before serving, dress and toss.

A couple of years ago, some friends and I had a Summer Salad Club. We stretched the bounds of the summer slightly, starting in May and going into the first weeks of September. We'd get together for a potluck dinner every few weeks, each time trying to bring a new salad that included fresh, seasonal ingredients.

I was flipping through a file folder of recipes tonight, looking for a recipe for a brie and tomato pasta sauce that I remember clipping from the newspaper last summer (I never did find it), when I stumbled across a print out that dates back to the early days of the salad club. It is for an Orzo, Arugula, Radicchio and Pine Nut salad and is from cooking.com. It is super garlicky (a feature I particularly love) and has a nice combination of textures and crunch. As we head into the end of summer, some of the delicate salad greens are coming back into the farmers markets, which are perfect for this salad. The recipe is after the jump.

You might notice that the picture above doesn't perfectly match the recipe, but I do think that basil would be a nice addition to this recipe, if you wanted to go that way.

Spinach salads are out for the moment, unless you feel like taking chances that even restaurants aren't willing to. Supermarkets are reporting a big drop in salad sales, but there is no reason to cut all greens out of your diet along with spinach. Now is the perfect time to experiment with some non-spinach salad greens. Some alternatives include:

• Mâche - delicate, sweet and slightly nutty. It resembles a cross between young spinach and a tender lettuce.
• Arugula - peppery and sharp. This green makes a great background for salads with sweet fruits or mild nuts in them
• Chard - tender and sweet when cooked. Chard is a great alternative for spinach in cooked dishes (unless you opt for frozen spinach, which the USDA says is still safe to eat at the moment).
• Dandelion Greens - sharper and more bitter than arugula. These are best when mixed with other greens, but choose smaller, more delicate leaves for salads

Romaine and iceberg lettuces can always stand in for other greens in salads, too, and can be a nice base for a salad when experimenting with other greens, particularly bitter greens.