The Washington Post called this “Marinated Pizza Bean Salad” when they published the recipe a few weeks ago and, this does have the bones of a good pizza – the oil, the basil, the garlic, the Mozz, etc.; I didn’t get an overwhelming sense of “PIZZA.”
Just a very, very good salad, that is gonna be on offer at a lot of gatherings from now on.
Of course, I did up the garlic, swapped out one of the cheeses called for with Feta, and added some stuff, but still…
tasty salad!
INGREDIENTS
Marinated Beans:
•1/3 cup olive oil
•1/4 cup red wine vinegar
•2 cloves garlic, minced
•1/8 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
•1/4 tsp Seasoned Salt
•1/4 tsp Aleppo pepper
•1/2 tsp black pepper
•8 fresh basil leaves, chopped
•2 (15 oz) cans great northern beans, drained and rinsed
Salad:
•Chopped lettuce (I used a blend)
•Sliced grape tomatoes
•Sautéed asparagus
•Olive oil
•1 shallot, sliced
•6 oz small Mozzarella balls
•1/2 cup Feta cheese chunks
•Chopped fresh basil leaves
•Marcona almonds with rosemary*
*Available at Trader Joe’s.
Drain and rinse the beans.
Whisk the marinade ingredients together in a medium pan, then stir in the beans.
Bring to a simmer, stirring every now and then, then remove from the heat and allow to cool completely.
Transfer to a bowl, cover tightly, and stash in the fridge overnight.
Trim the woody ends from the asparagus and cut into one inch slices.
Heat one tablespoon of olive oil (garlic infused olive oil is lovely here) in a skillet over medium high heat.
Add the asparagus and sautée for five to ten minutes, until bright green and crisp-tender.
Set aside to cool, then transfer to a covered container and stash in the fridge until it is time to make the salad.
To make the salad ahead; ddd the salad ingredients (without the beans) to a large salad bowl and toss to combine.
If you have room, go ahead and stash in the fridge to crisp until ready to serve.
When you are ready to serve, add the beans, with the marinade, to the salad and toss to combine and dress the salad.
Go ahead and enjoy.
I served this at a family gathering and most everyone was very happy with it.
Not, I will admit, as happy as they all were with the ribs I served along with, but, still, there were some picky eaters in that group, so I will take it as a win.
Besides, we both loved the salad, so…