Bright and Beautiful Broccoli

I never thought the words "broccoli salad" would ever cross my lips, much less show up on my dinner table. Based on my experience, any sort of mayonaise based salad belongs at a church potluck right next to the jello mold and the banana pudding with nilla wafers. (Not, by the way, that I don't enjoy those things when I'm at a church potluck or lunch at grandma's.)

However, I was browsing through recipes for my freshly-picked-today broccoli and found a gorgonzola-based, broccoli salad that worked with my gluten-free rice pasta. Knowing my husband's deep attachement to gorgonzola, I had to give it a try. And of course, our intrepid dining companions, Kate and Gary, were willing to test out today's recipes for me.



The broccoli salad recipe came from Epicurious and I made a few changes of my own (notably, making it gluten free, subbing canola mayo for regular and skipping the celery). The broccoli and scallions came from our CSA.

First, I blanched the broccoli and immediately shocked it in cold water, stopping the cooking process. This leaves the vegetable crisp-tender, which is perfect for a salad. At the same time, I started some rice pasta - and let me tell you, I have been disappointed by gluten-free pasta time and again, but the Tinkyada Rice Pasta held up well and didn't clump at all.

Next I made the dressing with mayo, sour cream, scallions and white wine vinegar. The dressing included big lumps of gorgonzola, which were tough to mash into a smooth dressing - luckily the heat of the oven cooking up a chicken helped soften the cheese.

Once mixed, I added the broccoli, then the pasta and slid it into the fridge for a couple of hours before we had dinner.

I flanked the salad with a freshly roasted chicken - guided by the recipe at Chow and slightly put off by the fact that the giblets were not bagged up, but hanging around inside the cavity loose and wet (YUCK).

We enjoyed dinner on the back porch as the rain came down (again) with a crisp bottle of Cupcake Sauvignon Blanc, some of this season's inescapable Garlic Scape Pesto and excellent company!