Carmelita's Cookitaly

Chicken, Apricot and Pine Nut Salad

Here's a fresh and zing-y easy salad that is low calorie, colourful and delicious, so long as all your ingredients are super fresh. If you poach the chicken and prep. the carrots the night before, you can assemble the salad in minutes for a light lunch the next day.

Here's what you need:

a boneless, skinless chicken breast

a small Cos lettuce

about 200g of Lamb's lettuce or baby spinach leaves

2 small carrots

5 plump dried apricots

a small handful of pine nuts

The grated zest of 1/4 of an orange

optional: 500 ml vegetable stock

evo and salt for dressing at table

And this is what you do:

The night before peel the carrot then continue peeling ribbons stopping when you reach the hard core. Place the ribbons in a bowl of water and set in the fridge so they crisp up and curl.

Clean the lettuces and gently spin dry. If keeping overnight wrap loosely in kitchen paper and then place in a plastic bag, which you press to exclude air. Keep in fridge overnight.

Poach the chicken at a gentle simmer in the hot vegetable stock or water. As soon as it is done (how long will depend on how thick it is but don't overcook it), place the chicken breast in cold water for 10 minutes then remove, wrap in plastic food film and refrigerate.

Toast the pine nuts slowly and carefully in a dry pan over medium low heat until toasted all the way through. When you can easily smell their slightly bacon-like aroma they are done.

Slice the apricots. Just before assembling the salad, slice the chicken breast neatly against the grain when it is still cold from the fridge.

Use a potato peeler to cut thin strips of pith-less zest from the orange, then slice into julienne strips using the tip of a small sharp knife. Alternatively use a ring zester if you have one.

Assemble the salad on a wide shallow platter. Make a bed of the two kinds of green salad leaves, top with the chicken and apricots, scatter over the pine nuts and orange zest and finish with the drained curly carrot ribbons.

Dress at table with excellent evo and salt.

Ring the changes:

No apricots or almonds in your store cupboard? You can use celery, raisins, walnuts and apples with the chicken breast and include a few red salad leaves for a change. Or try combining with sliced red onions or spring onions, pineapple pieces, sliced radishes and some sweet corn kernels.

Celery, Pine Nut, Raisin and Chocolate Sauce for Roman Coda alla Vaccinara

Part Two

On to the second exciting part, the finishing sauce that makes the dish so special.

You will need

3 to 6 celery stalks, the pale kind if you can get it - the original recipe uses half a head of celery
A handful of pine nuts
A handful of raisins
A  single square of 70% cocoa dark chocolate - milk chocolate is all wrong
A nutmeg to grate

Preparation

First thing you do is de-string the celery carefully, then slice it into half moon segments. Bring a a pan of water to the boil and throw in a small handful of salt just before you tip in the sliced celery. Roman cuisine loves celery  - called sellero not sedano here - so you can put lots of it in. That way the celery is your vegetable dish and no other side is needed. How  small you chop it and how long you cook it is up to you. Italians like their vegetables cooked through not crunchy, and would cook medium slices for 15 to 20 minutes. I usually cook most of mine the Italian way reserving a handful to add a few minutes before the rest is ready, so as to have just a few crunchy pieces. One minute before scooping out the celery with a slotted spoon, throw in the raisins too, so that they can plump up a little, but if your raisins are very dry then soak them in warm water beforehand and skip this step.

Now it's time to toast the pine nuts on low heat in a dry pan. The traditional recipe does not toast them, just adds them to the chocolate sauce along with the celery and raisins but I prefer to use them as a topping - more attractive and tastier  - and they retain some crunch this way. Toast them patiently and slowly to be sure they are toasted all the way through, not just too browned on the outside and soft on the inside. They are ready when you can really smell their aroma.

Warm up the ox tail and its meat jelly in a small saucepan on low heat until the gelatin liquefies. Cover and leave on low heat until it is time to serve.

And now the sauce!

Take a small saucepan and in it place a few ladles of the jellied juices from the casserole but make sure you leave the ox tail pieces well covered to stop them from drying out, add water if necessary. When the meat sauce in the little pan is hot, add the drained celery, the raisins, and one square of dark chocolate. Stir till the chocolate is melted, let it cook for 5 minutes or so and taste - it should not taste chocolatey.The chocolate is there to darken and thicken the sauce, and to add a smokey mysterious something to the meat/tomato/clove flavours. If your sauce tastes chocolatey, keep cooking it, and if necessary add more of the cooking sauce from the ox tail. If it seems watery then add a little more chocolate. Grate some nutmeg  - I like lots - and maybe some pepper, then taste and if you're happy with it, you're ready to serve,

Place one large or two small ox tail pieces on each plate with some of the juices from the casserole, place a tablespoon of the chocolate and celery enriched sauce on top, scatter with pine nuts, garnish with celery leaves, and take to the table

Buon Appetito!