Lost and Found

I love the internet, I really do. These days I barely open my cookbooks. There are a million blogs, a gazillion recipes, more than enough to keep me cooking happily away for a couple lifetimes at least. I am constantly stumbling over new sites, while my old favorites keep churning out delicious and tempting treats.

There’s only one problem.

Sometimes I see something good, something delectable that I just have to try. But I get distracted, I mean to flag it but I forget. I have all good intention to come back to that site, that particular recipe that has won my heart for the day (or even just for the hour, I can be a fickle one), but sometimes I forget.

I don’t forget to come back—a promise is a promise, if only to myself. The problem is, I forget where I was supposed to come back to. I hunt around a bit, looking high and low, but occasionally I fail. I can’t find it at all, and I’m left scratching my head, trying to remember what was on that ingredient list I merely glanced at. And even if I can roughly recreate the ingredients, what was I supposed to do with them?

This salad is born of that dilemma. There was a recipe somewhere—and to be honest, maybe it wasn’t even a blog—that caught my eye. A salad of thin strips of raw butternut squash, tossed with some other ingredients that I can’t remember but I believe one of them was prosciutto. When I still couldn’t find the recipe after some hunting, I decided to wing it.



The strips of butternut squash were a given—that’s what had attracted me in the first place. I probably wouldn’t have used the prosciutto anyway, but I thought some toasted pine nuts would be good. A drizzle of Meyer lemon and some olive oil sounded appealing, and I abandoned my idea of coarsely chopped parsley when I remembered I had some arugula in the fridge. It sounded like it might work.

I was mostly interested in what the slices of raw butternut squash would be like, and for this I grabbed a tool I use far more than I would have expected when I bought it—a ceramic blade slicer by Kyocera (though watch those fingers, it’s a sharp little devil). I have the adjustable width slicer and cut the squash on the 0.5 mm setting.



The squash came out thin and tasting a little like an apple but with a milder flavor and a smoother texture. I don’t think I’ve eaten raw squash before, but I quite liked it. It had the same fresh appealing smell as a pumpkin when it is first cut open.



Everything got tossed up together and the final result was both delicious and beautiful. I loved how the sweetness of the squash played off the slight bitterness of the arugula and the buttery, nutty flavor of the pinenuts grounded them both. I had thought that perhaps it would want some cheese—a manchego or pecorino—but to my taste it was perfect just the way it was.



I’ve eaten this salad three times in the past two days. I can’t figure out where I saw this recipe—and please help me if you can—but I owe someone a hearty thanks for the inspiration for my new favorite salad.

Not only do I have a new favorite salad, I have a new favorite cookbook. I was lucky enough to get to sneak a peek at Heidi Swanson’s new Super Natural Cooking this weekend and it is stunning.

I may not be spending much time with cookbooks
these days, but this one will be the exception. Not only are the photographs gorgeous (would you expect any less from Heidi?), the recipes are intriguing yet accessible; this is a book I know I’ll actually cook from.

I love Heidi’s unique take on cooking—how she reframes dishes in a way that make my tummy rumble and my mind open to new ways of thinking about traditional ingredients (risotto with barley, crepes made from quinoa and corn flour). I can’t wait to jump into the stunning photos and tempting recipes in this book.

In fact, Heidi’s the reason I had half a butternut squash to play with for this dish. When I saw her recipe for Maranui Surf Club Salad on 101 Cookbooks this weekend I just had to make it. It was so good I made it twice in a row—once with sweet potatoes, once with butternut squash. Delicious both ways. Now I have two favorite salads.



BUTTERNUT SQUASH SALAD

Per person:
1 cup raw butternut squash, sliced thinly with a mandoline or slicer (make sure it’s as fresh as possible—old squash will be too tough to eat raw)
1/2 cup arugula (about one large handful)
1/8 cup toasted pinenuts
olive oil and lemon juice (Meyer lemon, if possible) to taste
salt, as desired

Toss squash and arugula in a bowl, drizzle with olive oil and lemon juice. Top with toasted pinenuts. Sprinkle with a flaky salt, such as Maldon.