Day 14 of my desperate struggle to shield the fragile and superficial dream of the Old South against the onslaught of Mark Bittman’s Brando-esque imagination, and I, like Mr. Kowalski, have learned that blanch can take a lot out of you.
Blanch spinach, then drain and shock in ice water. Squeeze it dry, chop it and toss it with toasted pine nuts, raisins, olive oil and a tiny bit of balsamic vinegar. Capers are good, too. Quite elegant, actually.
There’s a ton of super strong flavors in this dish, and they all work together beautifully: the individual parts are entirely overt, but when they come together, the effects are infinitely subtle. You have a chaotic storm of egos playing against each other. It isn’t the elegant simplicity of Erik Satie or the overbearing dissonance of Arnold Shchoenberg, but the dissonant elegance of Alban Berg, or—as it were—of Tennessee Williams. When Blanche DuBois came up against Stanley Kowalski, we got A Streetcar Named Desire; when blanched spinach, toasted pine nuts, raisins, and capers come into contact, we get this irresistible symphony of competing flavors. The capers only amplify the effect; I highly recommend their use. But be careful not to use too many. The egos need to be in a balanced war, or the whole system collapses and one flavor tyrannizes the dish.
Bittman's Salad of Summer #24: Spinach, Raisins, Pine Nuts
August 11, 2009 at 5:31 pm |
Ooh, ooh–I got an idea for a movie: Half biopic of Mark Bittman’s early days as a food journalist at the NYT during its late-1970s, pre-Internet heyday; half romantic comedy about a young blogger who tries to cook his way through all 101 of Bittman’s salad recipes.
I was thinking that the movie would do well if the young blogger were played by some hip actor like Jake Gyllenhaal, or, even better–Zac Efron. For Bittman, we’d need a master thespian like Patrick Stewart or Ben Kingsley.
Seriously, though, I have one suggestion. It seems obvious to me that most of Bittman’s salads will be good. What I can’t tell just from his article is which salad is cheapest to make. If this really is a “salad for the masses” blog, let’s not forget that little known fact: there’s a recession going on!!!!!! Tough economy!!! Nobody can afford capers!!!