June 8, 2011 - Fruit and Gorgonzola Salad with Proscuitto

Here we are in the summer of food, well the summer of a lot of things. The summer of fairies (The Savoy Company’s Iolanthe), the summer of moving (July), the summer of food…ok it’s the summer of THREE things.   Alright, the summer of food means in laymen’s terms that it’s the summer I start to really learn how to cook/enjoy food and understand more about the whole process than my usual pasta and scallops with random Asian sauces mixture (and garlic, and red pepper flakes).  I’ve decided to start to cook, to learn what is so compelling about the kitchen and to get it right.

After acquiring my ingredients and throwing out the recently broken beautiful cookie jar I got while on a girls weekend with my three best friends Sarah, Heidi, and Mairin (henceforth referenced as GTR) and putting away the groceries which do NOT belong in the recipe…I’m ready to start.

Today’s Recipe:  Fruit and Gorgonzola Salad with Prosciutto (from Food Network Magazine/Foodnetwork.com)

The recipe calls for:

• prosciutto – check
• extra virgin olive oil – check
• sherry vinegar – mother of pearls…thanks Acme I’ll substitute red wine vinegar and hope it works out ok
• Dijon mustard – grey poupon check
• kosher salt – check
• freshly ground pepper – mother of pearls guess I’ll use finely ground but not freshly
• 2 peaches – check
• 2 plums – m.o.p./thanks Acme I hope California apricots are a close second
• Red onion – check
• Mixed salad greens – check
• Crumbled gorgonzola – YUMM and check
• Bread – I decided not to use the bread since it’s just served alongside and it’s just lil’ ol’ me for dinner.

Of course as soon as I started to “pit and slice the peaches ½ inch” I realized there was no music. And as shown in every movie I’ve ever seen, everyone who enjoys their kitchen has music on. Right? Thanks steromood.com for having a cooking time playlist. Pitting…how thick is ½ inch?

Well I really like steromood’s tunes for this evenings endeavor, and I’m awful at estimating.  So far so good, maybe because I ate some prosciutto while prepping everything, but that’s half the fun right?

I thought that the prosciutto frying was a fail, but end result actually ended up being COMPLETELY DELISH! I think I figured out (too late, aka while eating) that the   ½ inch slice for the fruit was meant to be “bite size” so that I could just fork the fruit and eat it.  I admit that while making the meal I was a little worried, there was some sputtering from the pan and I thought I’d totally over crisped the prosciutto but man oh MAN was that delicious!  The gorgonzola really complemented the peaches and the prosciutto brought a tangy crunch that was triple mmmm.  I can see why the recipe called for plums, the apricots were a little more tart than plums would have been.  

Overall I’m going to give this recipe a +5 for taste (even modified due to grocery store constraints) and a +7 for using the same skillet for all parts of the cooking!  I’m also going to give my roommate Gretchen a +5 for giving me some of her bread from dinner (since I didn’t use the Italian bread suggestion). Good first dish!