When I was first approached about providing recipes for Natural Nutmeg I was excited. My passion for food has always been something I love sharing. To me there is no better place to share that with than the readers of Natural Nutmeg. We share in a belief of wholesome natural foods that are sustainable, healthy and above all delicious! I look forward to providing recipes that you enjoy making as much as you will enjoy eating.
Today, I will be showing our most popular salad at Papacelle, our Grilled Romaine. This delicious salad will be perfect for those warming spring nights when you are itching to fire up the grill, pour yourself a nice glass of Chardonnay and watch the sun set.
As with all of our recipes you will notice that the recipe will be simple and will have very few ingredients. Because of this simplicity, the freshness and quality of each ingredient will be extremely important.
Dish: Grilled Romaine
Category: Salad
Serves: 2
Prep Time: 15-20 minutes
Cooking Time: 5 minutes
Special Tools:
A grill (gas grill will work, but the grilled flavor really shines through with a wood fired grill). I have also tried using a cast iron pan on med-high heat which works just as well as a gas grill.
Components:
| Item | Suggested Possible Substitutions | |
| 1 head of romaine lettuce, cleaned and sliced lengthwise | none | |
| Sliced Radicchio | Endive or any other bitter hardy lettuce | |
| Garlic Oil1 | Any herbed or infused oil | |
| Distilled White Vinegar | Red wine vinegar, balsamic vinegar | |
| ½ Roasted Pepper2 | Any roasted vegetable | |
| ½ Roasted Zucchini3 | “ | |
| 6-8 Calamata Olives | Gaeta olives, or capers | |
| Salt and Pepper | n/a | |
Make sure your grill is nice and hot. Drizzle, or brush a small amount of garlic oil onto your lettuce and radicchio, place on the grill cut side down for about 2 minutes or until charred, don’t be afraid of giving the lettuce some color. Flip the lettuce and radicchio over to the other side and let sit for another 1-2 minutes.
Place your lettuce and radicchio on your preferred serving plate. Drizzle the lettuce with a little more oil and vinegar to taste. Top with your pepper, olives and zucchini. Add salt and pepper to taste.
1 To make roasted garlic oil, place your garlic in foil, or over your grill (rotating every 10 minutes) or in a 375F oven until garlic is soft, about 30-35 minutes. Then whisk or blend it together with some good quality Canola oil.
2 Decent roasted peppers can be in a few select stores preferably, you can use your grill to roast the peppers whole until black, let them cool in a paper bag and peel the skin.
3 For the Zucchini, all you would need to do is slice in 1/8th inch slices lengthwise and cook over the grill or in a pan until golden brown.
Submitted by Dave Pianka, owner of Papacelle’s Ristorante in Avon. If you have any questions, ideas or would just like to talk food join me at our blog www.papacelle.com or email me dave@papacelle.com anytime!