Watercress with Piquant Currant Sauce
This watercress salad is to be shared as an appetizer at a dinner for two, accompany with some dry white wine and slowly savor the complexity!
Ingredients:
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tsp honey
2 tbsp dried currants
1 large bunch watercress, stemmed
1/4 cup chopped fresh lovage, or 1/2 small stalk celery, finely diced
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 ripe pears, cored, sliced lengthwise
8 slices of aged kephalotyri, graviera or Italian pecorino cheese (see note)
coarse sea salt and fresh ground black pepper, to taste
Procedure:
1. In a small saucepan, combine the vinegar, honey and currants. Heat over a low flame until the honey is dissolved. Pour into a small bowl to cool.
2. In a medium bowl, combine the watercress and lovage or celery.
3. Whisk the olive oil into the vinegar and honey mixture. Pour this dressing over the greens and lightly toss.
4. Arrange the greens on one side of a platter with the pears and cheese on the other. Sprinkle the greens with salt and pepper. Sprinkle the pears with pepper.
Recipe from Rosemary Barron's cookbook, Meze: Small Bites, Big Flavors from the Greek Table" (Chronicle Books).