A few years back, before kale became all the craze in LA and the world’s new super food, Rigo showed up one night holding two voluminous dark green leafy bouquets and thrust them at me with great vigor. “What’s that?”, I asked him with genuine ignorance. “It’s kale!”, he told me excitedly. “Do something with it.”
Do something with it?, I thought to myself. What the heck was I going to do with it? I had no idea how to manage this new, nutrient dense, slightly bitter, and very intimidating vegetable. So I had to rely on my Italian roots and my love of Mediterranean ingredients. I immersed myself in the kitchen and emerged a few hours later with the tastiest kale salad that my taste buds have ever experienced. It was as if they were screaming at me between every bite, “Give us more of the delicious and nutritious!”. It was so tasty, in fact, that Rigo decided to enter this salad in a food contest at work. The theme on that occasion was “green foods”…or maybe it was “cold dishes”…or it could have actually been “healthy dishes”….hmmm….anyway that’s irrelevant. The important part is, this salad won first place, and it has gone on to have a successful career in the food world as it has been a hit at every party, dinner, potluck, and random celebration where it has made an appearance.
It is my pleasure to share this recipe for our award-winning kale salad:
Sun dried tomatoes in oil — julienne sliced from trader joes (about 1/2 jar with the oil for one salad)
Pine nuts (toasted in the toaster oven) – I use about 1/4 cup for one salad
Crumbled feta cheese — about 1/4 cup or 4 oz
Buon appetito amici!
ilaria eats 
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