Lisa Messinger's
Cookbooks of the Week

Insalate: Authentic Italian Salads For All Seasons

by Susan Simon (Chronicle)

Those who have been fortunate enough to sample salads throughout Italy know that an Italian salad with two or three ingredients often puts to shame an overflowing, 50-ingredient American salad bar. The perfect blend and balance of seasonal ingredients kept simple is the secret, as author Susan Simon chronicles beautifully in her book. Heaven, for instance, in a salad bowl: 8 cups baby spinach leaves topped with one-half pound mild Gorgonzola cheese that's been heated until it is liquid. Joy on the end of a salad fork: A head of crunchy lettuce, leaves separated and a clove of garlic rubbed on each leaf that is then dressed with a drizzle of olive oil and a tiny bit of salt. Even when the ingredient roster is longer, the pitch is still perfect, as in the Fontina and roasted yellow pepper salad from the Piemonte region of northwestern Italy, in which the roasted peppers and chopped green olives virtually glow in a light dressing of Fontina cheese, cream, olive oil and Dijon mustard.

RECIPE: FONTINA AND ROASTED YELLOW PEPPER SALAD