Salad with Pancetta, Goats Cheese and Pomegranate Molasses Dressing

Salad with Pancetta, Goats Cheese and Pomegranate Molasses Dressing

This salad with pancetta, goats cheese and pomegranate molasses is from Lyndey & Herbie’s Moveable Feast TV series.

Serves: 6 as a side dish
Preparation: 15 minutes
Cooking: 10 minutes

Ingredients

1/3 cup (80g) pine nuts
6 slices pancetta
2 cups mesclun or mixed lettuce leaves
100g goats cheese, crumbled
Microherbs e.g. beetroot, amaranth, coriander, shiso
Edible flowers e.g. pea flowers, and other flowers

Method

1. Place a large frying pan over medium heat and toast pine nuts until golden. Remove to cool. Cook pancetta in the same pan until crisp, turning once or twice. Remove and cool.
2. Place lettuce leaves in the bottom of a serving bowl. Break pancetta over the top, then sprinkle with pine nuts and goats cheese.
3. Sprinkle with microherbs, edible flowers and drizzle with dressing.

Salad dressing with Pomegranate Molasses

Mixing oil and water is always a challenge, and that’s why so many commercial salad dressings are full of stabilisers and thickeners. The additives are put in to blend the oil and vinegar and to keep the particles in suspension. The result is a slimy consistency that seems inappropriate with something as natural, clean and fresh as a salad. In this simple recipe we use mustard powder to help the ingredients amalgamate and stay mixed for up to 30 minutes after shaking the bottle.

Makes: about 1 cup (enough to dress 10 medium-sized salads)
Preparation: 10 minutes

Ingredients

1/3 cup (80ml) olive oil
2 tablespoons (40ml) balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons (40ml) white wine vinegar
2 tablespoons (40ml) pomegranate molasses

Salad Dressing Seasoning
2 teaspoons yellow mustard powder
1 teaspoon crushed dried parsley
½ teaspoon dried dill
¼ teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
¼ teaspoon ground allspice

Method

1. Pour the olive oil, vinegars and pomegranate molasses into a clean, wide-neck sauce bottle.
2. In a small cup, mix the salad dressing seasoning with 1 tablespoon cold water and leave to stand for five minutes. Stir well then add to the olive oil mixture. Put the lid on the bottle and shake well until all the ingredients are mixed through.

This dressing is quite stable and need not be refrigerated. It will keep for up to three months.

Lyndey’s Notes: If you want your dressing to have a bit of ‘bite’, let the thin mustard paste stand for up to 15 minutes before adding it to the olive oil mixture. During this time the enzymes in the mustard powder will be activated by the cold water to make the paste hotter. The acid in the vinegar will halt the enzyme reaction so it won’t get any hotter once it’s added to the rest of the dressing. If you don’t have any pomegranate molasses you can use dark grape juice instead.

Recipe from Lyndey & Herbie’s Moveable Feast TV series & DVD (www.flamedistributionstore.com)

For more information on pomegranates, how to buy them, store them and use them, see my article here.

Other Salad Recipes:
Moroccan Chicken Salad
Thai Salad Lettuce Bites
Orange Salad with Baby Beets, Feta and Pinenuts