Warm Goat Cheese Salad with Arugula and Radicchio

Wolfgang Puck

Warm Goat Cheese Salad with Arugula and Radicchio

"If you can't stand the heat," as the popular saying goes, "stay out of the kitchen." While that line is usually used to suggest that people shouldn't attempt more than they are capable of handling (or bite off more than they can chew, you might say!), it also applies perfectly to the realities of cooking during the dwindling days of summer.

Now is the time of year when many people really do want to stay out of their kitchens as much as possible. Not only don't they want to subject themselves to a room warmed up by an oven, broiler, or stovetop burners, but they also simply do not want to feel weighed down by a hot and heavy cooked meal.

When you find yourself disinclined to cook, that means it's the perfect time to prepare yourself a generous salad. You want something that adds up to more than just the usual side salad of mixed greens and other vegetables. But that doesn't mean you have to go to any great culinary lengths to achieve satisfying results.

Think of a bed of salad leaves as the vegetable side dish for a main-course protein, and consider the salad's dressing the equivalent of a flavorful sauce for that featured item. (After all, remember that the French call vinaigrette dressing sauce vinaigrette, a "little vinegar sauce.") With that perspective, you can transform virtually any plate of dressed greens into a main dish by topping it with your protein of choice: leftovers such as slice of chicken, beef, pork, or lamb, or generous flakes of fish fillets; drained canned tuna; or a julienne of thinly sliced cured meats or other cold cuts.

One of my favorite salad stars, however, is the fresh, creamy goat cheese sometimes labeled with its French term, chevre. As you'll see in my recipe for Goat Cheese Salad with Arugula and Radicchio, which yields four appetizer portions or two generous luncheon main-dish salads, I start with a log of goat cheese, which you'll find these days in most well-stocked supermarkets. I cut the log into individual portions and marinate them in some seasoned olive oil to enhance their flavor. Then, after making a vinaigrette and dressing the leaves -- nutty-flavored arugula and mildly bitter radicchio, both perfect complements to the rich tang of the chevre -- I very briefly warm and brown the cheese in some oil and then place the slices on top of the salad.

So, yes, a little actual cooking is involved. But, if you can stand the heat for just that brief minute or two, you'll wind up with a plateful of food that leaves you feeling fresh and cool while satisfying you completely.

Warm Goat Cheese Salad with Arugula and Radicchio

Serves 2 to 4

DIJON MUSTARD VINAIGRETTE:

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh tarragon leaves

1 tablespoon sherry wine vinegar or red wine vinegar

Salt

Freshly ground white pepper

1 cup almond oil or extra-virgin olive oil, or a mixture of both

SALAD:

4 ounces log-shaped fresh creamy goat cheese, cut into 4 equal slices

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1-1/2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves

1 garlic clove, peeled and crushed

Freshly ground black pepper

2 small heads organic radicchio, leaves separated and torn into bite-sized pieces

2 cups organic baby arugula leaves

4 tablespoons shelled pine nuts

First, make the vinaigrette: In a small bowl, whisk together the mustard, tarragon, vinegar, salt, and pepper. Whisking continuously, slowly drizzle in the oil. Taste and adjust the seasonings, adding more salt and pepper, as well as mustard and vinegar as necessary.

For the salad, in a bowl large enough to hold the goat cheese slices side by side, stir together the olive oil, 1 teaspoon of the thyme, the garlic, and black pepper to taste. Cover with plastic wrap, refrigerate, and leave the cheese to marinate for up to 1 hour.

Meanwhile, rinse the radicchio and arugula leaves with cold running water. Dry them in a salad spinner or pat dry with paper towels.

In a salad bowl, toss the leaves with enough of the vinaigrette to coat them lightly. Divide the leaves among 2 or 4 large salad plates.

Heat a nonstick saute pan over medium heat until very hot. Spoon in 2 tablespoons of the marinade oil from the goat cheese. When the oil is hot enough to flow easily in the pan, carefully add the goat cheese slices and sprinkle the pine nuts between them. Saute the goat cheese slices until lightly browned, about 30 seconds per side, turning once with a nonstick spatula; meanwhile, also gently stir the pine nuts and, when they are lightly browned, transfer them to paper towels to drain.

With the spatula, transfer the slices of hot goat cheese to the centers of each bed of salad greens. Garnish the cheese with the remaining thyme leaves. Scatter pine nuts over the cheese and leaves on each salad. Serve immediately.

Salad Recipe, French Cuisine

Subscribe to Receive our Gourmet Recipes

FOOD, DRINK & RECIPES [...]

Warm Goat Cheese Salad with Arugula and Radicchio

World-renowned chefs with an extraordinary passion for food share their passion on iHaveNet.com. These chefs make great cooking easier than imagined. Each gourmet recipe features expert advice and an easy-to-make recipe. Exactly what you need to transform your home cooking from acceptable to delectable