This salad - which I prepared way back when - provided me a series of firsts. It allowed me to finally try some fantastic balsamic vinegar a friend had brought us from Modena, to attempt hard-boiling eggs, and to try my first "60-Minute Gourmet" recipe.
Until I had stumbled upon this recipe, I was completely unaware of the 60-Minute Gourmet series, Pierre Franey's weekly New York Times column which ran from 1976 to 1993. It was interesting to find this piece of recent culinary history as I think it may prompt a new exploration in my kitchen - what recipes have withstood trends of modern America and can really live through the ages?
Part of that new exploration may be because this simple arugula salad with balsamic vinegar was pretty bland for my taste. The ingredients, which individually were flavorful, didn't quite come together. Basically, it tasted like arugula with red onions and a hardboiled egg. With some balsamic vinaigrette on top (tasty vinaigrette though to be clear).
In addition to trying a new, solid salad dressing recipe that was pretty easy to put together, I also got to learn how to make a hardboiled egg, which I found easy on my first go after extensive how-to research. I followed the Simply Recipes approach, which was pretty easy and I will likely default to in the future.
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