If the holidays left you craving something green and healthy right now, no worries, I have the perfect salad for you! I’m currently in love with this salad, thanks to my friend Stacey who posted it on her blog. I could literally eat this for lunch all week, and I have!
Simple but superior ingredients is what makes this salad so scrumptious. Cooked farro, that wonderful chewy and nutty tasting Italian grain is tossed with baby arugula, cherry tomatoes, pitted nicoise olives, buttery and over the top extremely addictive Marcona almonds and really good feta.
Speaking of feta, I’ve been obsessed with the brand that you see above for some time now, I buy it at my Costco, it’s about $11.00 for a 2 pack. It’s outstanding and a little goes a long way because the flavor is so intensified. No comparison in taste to the feta crumbles you can buy in the stores, none what so ever! If you can’t find this particular brand just get the real deal.
All those ingredients and flavors combined with premium extra virgin olive oil and fresh lemon juice for your dressing and you have a salad that you will crave and dream about eating, it’s that good!
If I were you I would cook up a whole bag of farro, stick it into a container in the fridge so it’s handy when you want to toss this salad together, especially if you plan on eating it for lunch during the week.
I chose nicoise olives because I adore them along with a lemon and olive oil dressing which went heavenly together, but you can certainly use pitted kalamata olives and a vinegar based dressing like my friend Stacey did. You can’t go wrong, it’s all good!
- 1½ cups of cooked farro
- 1 lb. baby arugula
- handful of marcona almonds
- ½ cup, sliced cherry tomatoes
- ⅓ cup nicoise olives
- ½ cup good feta crumbled
- FOR THE DRESSING
- 1 lemon
- olive oil
- Make the dressing by squeezing the juice of one lemon into a small bowl then whisking in olive oil and tasting until you get the right balance.
- Place all the ingredients into a bowl and then toss with the dressing adding salt and pepper to taste.
Recently I got together with my side of the family to make ravioli for our Annual Ravioli Night with The Cousins dinner. We incorporated this tradition a few years ago when a dear close cousin of mine past away. Her mother, (my aunt) and my mother, were not only sister in laws they were best friends. They would always cook together and be together during the holidays so all of us cousins wanted to do the same thing along with our own families. We use their cherished ravioli recipe that has been handed down to all of us.
Making ravioli for a crowd is probably not the smartest thing to do, you really have to be organized. We make and form the actual ravioli on 
We set aside the whole day to make them, only stopping for lunch in between and a few coffee breaks, this year we made 200 meat and 200 cheese.
Once we get our mojo working properly the ravioli start coming together quickly. We all have our jobs, I usually do the rolling of all the dough with 
One thing I didn’t want to do is have pots of water boiling on my stove with 30 people in my house, so the night before the actual party all that messy work is finished. I also make sure that days before my sauce is all pre-made and ready to go.
After they cool down I cover the pans with heavy duty foil and keep them cold overnight. When it’s party time all I have to do is pop the whole pan in the oven at 350 degrees F. for 15 minutes, they get perfectly warmed and the pans are great for serving but more importantly there’s nothing major for me to do on party day with a house full of people.
Ravioli Night with The Cousins is now an annual event in my house, we do it a couple of weeks before Christmas and we all look forward to it every year!
Can you see why I love those big pans? I can get 60 to 70 ravioli single layer on one full sheet pan, they’re great for a big party.
We keep our menu simple, it’s basically the same every year, meat and cheese ravioli, a couple of different salads, good bread, my brothers famous sausage and peppers and chicken that he makes on a charcoal grill. There’s plenty of wine and tons of desserts.
Another tradition that is now added to our annual Ravioli Night with The Cousins is my daughters homemade limoncello, it’s the best and truly one of the highlights of the night, she makes it every year with much love and care and we all look forward to sipping it. We toast to those who aren’t with us any longer and to all our families here and now. The younger cousins kept doing multiple toasts throughout the night, it was so much fun! That’s my daughter, upper right hand corner picture, bottom center holding a glass. Thanks V!
Need a last minute gift idea? You can make these quick and very decadent little French confections called Mendiants.
Gather up some dried fruit and nuts, I’m sure you have some in your pantry or cabinets already, use whatever you like, you won’t need much just a handful of each. One other component I added was flaky sea salt, the salt complimented the chocolate so well and gave it a little crunch, I highly recommend using it.
Make sure you use premium dark chocolate and slowly simmer until melted over a double boiler. I bought a 1 pound bar and was able to make 42 mendiants out of it.
Some ideas for toppings are orange peel, apricots, cranberries, golden raisins, figs, coconut, pecans, pistachios, hazelnuts, walnuts, almonds and cashews to name a few. I did plump up my figs, cranberries and golden raisins by placing them in boiling water for 1 minute, make sure to dry them off.
A little goes a long way, you can quarter your figs and cut off small slices from your apricots, you don’t even need to add as much topping as I did.
I’m Marie, a wife, mother, mother-in-law, and gramma of two beautiful girls. My passion is food, clear and simple but especially Italian food, hence the name of my blog, Proud Italian Cook. I want you to feel right at home here so grab a cup of coffee, I’ll get the pastries, take a look around and enjoy your visit! {
