I Finally Made It!

Back in 2006, my family went on a vacation to Charleston, SC. You may remember a little discussion about this trip when I blogged peach pie (mmm peach pie). During that trip, we went to a restaurant. I can't remember the name but it was near Fort Sumpter. Anyway, at this restaurant I had a Grilled Romaine salad. It was so good, and I said back then that I would make this when I got home. Well I never did but it was always in the back of my mind.

No longer! I saw Romaine hearts in the store for a good price and snapped up with this salad in mind. Romaine hearts have all the outer leaves removed and what you get is all the tender inner leaves, so one whole heart serves one person. Clean the Romaine hearts and split in half but do not remove the core. The core will keep the heart intact on the grill.


Drizzle the halves with olive oil and place on a hot grill.


Don't walk away because this does not take long. After a few minutes turn the hearts and grill the other side.


You want them to be just starting to wilt down and have a some nice char marks. But if you go too far, the leaves will get brittle.

Once it's done, chop up the lettuce and put it in a big bowl. Add your fave salad fixings! I added grape tomatoes and fresh edamame and dressed lightly with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. I think a nice lemon vinaigrette would be good with this too. This salad is a really delicious change of pace from the norm.

My Version of Mediterranean Pasta Salad

This salad is one of several different pasta salads I've come up with through the years, and probably my favorite one. It's got it all. Start with a pound of farfalle (otherwise known as bowtie) pasta. Now be forewarned. If you do make a whole pound of pasta, this salad will feed an army. Cook pasta in salted water to al dente, drain, cool completely. You can toss with a little olive oil while it's cooling if you like, to keep it from sticking together.

Now the good stuff. First up, half a pound of pitted Kalamata olives, sliced.


A whole pint of grape tomatoes (or cherry tomatoes if you like), sliced.


Then a small jar of marinated artichoke hearts. They are usually already sliced, but I slice them in half again. Sometimes even more if it's particularly big.




You will also need a full 9 oz. bag of spinach. I made this before I went to the farmers market so I used the bagged pre-washed spinach.


And then, a 5 oz. container of crumbled Feta cheese.



Now the dressing. This is a very simple Balsamic vinaigrette. The salad is so chock full of flavors you don't need to bog the dressing down with too much. One half cup Balsamic vinegar to one cup of Extra Virgin Olive Oil. This is actually double the amount of dressing I usually make, but this salad is big and needs it. Add salt and pepper to the dressing, to taste. Remember you put olives in this salad so you may not need as much salt as you think.

Mix well and the spinach will start to wilt into the salad.



It's great as a side dish or on it's own. It's fantastic with some grilled chicken added. Feel free to leave out whatever you may not like. If you don't like Feta, try using cubes of mozzarella instead. If you don't like Kalamata's, by all means use an olive you do like. A lemon citronette (lemon juice, Dijon, olive oil) instead of the Balsamic vinaigrette would be delish too. Play with it. It's really really yummy.