A jolly good salad

A jolly good salad Here is a recipe for a salad that I served as a starter before the super-delicious slowly braised beef last weekend. It started as a simple salad thrown together from the ingredients I happened to have, but as the end result was very delicious, I've adopted it as my current party starter salad:)

Amongst the diners last Saturday were two Estonian guys. One of them made it clear that he doesn't like 'grass' (i.e. anything green and salad-like). The other one remembered after the second helpings that he really-really doesn't like goat's cheese. Funny how one forgot his aversion to salad leaves and the other happily munched away on goat's cheese while they were eating:)

A tasty salad with rocket, goat's cheese and bacon
(Pille pidulik salat põld-võõrkapsa, peekoni ja kitsejuustuga)



For the salad:
a bag of rocket salad, washed and drained
a couple of chopped spring onions
a generous handful of toasted pinenuts
a log of soft goat cheese
couple of rashers good quality lean smoked bacon

For the dressing:
extra virgin olive oil
half a squeezed lemon
crushed black pepper
Maldon sea salt

Not much to say about the preparation. Toast the pinenuts on a non-stick pan, fry chopped bacon until just crisp. Mix all ingredients in a bowl, drizzle over the dressing and serve.

Just a jolly good combination of the mustardy sharp rocket, salty-chewy bacon, nutty-crispy pinenuts and creamy-tart Welsh goat's cheese. Will make an appearance on my table again in no time.