Lacinato Kale Salad With Ricotta Salata

Ingredients

1 pound (or one bunch) lacinato kale (sometimes called Dinosaur Kale)

3 ounces ricotta salata

1 handful pine nuts (pignoli)

Juice from 1 juicy lemon

1/4 cup olive oil

salt

pepper

Preparation

Remove large chunks of stem from kale and rinse leaves, then pat them dry with paper towels

Stack a few of the kale leaves, then roll them up tightly like a cigar.

Cut across into a very fine chiffonade. You'll want to end up with 'strands' of the kale about as thick as twine. Repeat until you've sliced all the kale.

Grate cheese on coarse side of box grater.

Carefully toast pine nuts in a dry frying pan, they'll toast quickly, so keep shaking or stirring 'em. Remove immediately and set aside when they just begin to brown.

Mix the lemon juice, olive oil, about 1/2 tsp. salt and 1/4 tsp. pepper into a dressing.

Put the chiffonade of kale into a salad bowl.

Drizzle the dressing over it

Spread the grated cheese and pine nuts over the top, then gently toss to combine.

Let sit for a few minutes (or not!) and serve.This salad doesn't need anything else in the way of dressings or toppings.

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About

We found this recipe on Epicurious and discovered that if you cut the kale into an extremely fine chiffonade, it took the dark green, fibrous leaf down into something far more palatable - even delicious - when raw. The salty ricotta and dressing are a great foil. The pine nuts were our contribution, and we think they work well - their lightly toasted sweetness plays off against the more savory bits of the salad.

We often see kale used in cooked recipes - this one of the few times we've found - and hopefully improved upon - a raw kale recipe. Note that this is a dense, lush salad, we don't generally serve it with heavier meals, but more as a course unto itself.