Insalata di Bresaola e Songino - Bresaola with Corn Salad

So after my first failed attempt to use corn salad in a recipe, I decided to specifically seek out corn salad recipes and try again.

I chose this recipe on a night when I had a little dinner party planned and thought it would make a great first course. Then I went out of my way, driving all over the Bay Area looking for Bresaola, and finally found some in Berkeley on Fourth Street, not at Café Rouge (which was why I'd gone there in the first place) but at The Pasta Shop.

With the Bresaola in hand, I headed off to look for the rest of the ingredients, and lo and behold, still couldn't locate any corn salad. Now, you might say I should have looked into this before I went around buying the Bresaola, and definitely before the actual evening of the dinner party, but I did happen to read that mâche is a good substitute for corn salad, and I loooove mâche! So that sealed the deal.

With mâche and Bresaola in hand, I scurried home to fix up this salad and not only did it make a delicious first course, but the quantities I bought were far, far more than I needed for a little appetizer dinner for 6 (the recipe said it served 4, I increased the quantities a bit, and had leftovers for days). The good news is, the leftovers were quite tasty and easily assembled and I had salads for the next two days.

The salad was not too difficult to prepare, especially since I have a mandolin. Without a mandolin, I think it'd be a lot more tedious thin slicing. I trimmed and sliced two fennel bulbs and cut a celery stalk into thin batons. Then I mixed up the dressing: basically a Balsamic vinaigrette but with an egg yolk. I have to admit I was skeptical about the egg yolk (salmonella fears and whatnot) but it really made the dressing quite tasty! I whisked the yolk with 3 tablespoons of Balsamic vinegar, a scant half cup of olive oil and some salt and pepper.

On a pretty serving dish, I spread out the mâche, topped it with fennel and celery, then lay slices of Bresaola on top. I served the dressing on the side. We all really liked it. The nuttiness of the mâche was a nice contrast to the crisp freshness of the fennel and the celery and the Bresaola was a delicious salty meaty complement.

When I made a salad with the leftovers the next day, my quickly whisked together balsamic vinaigrette (minus the egg) was not quite as tasty, so it's good to know that an egg yolk is such a great addition.

Tasty Factor: A Ease of Preparation: B (with the mandolin) Modifications: Not really. I substituted mâche for corn salad, but they're apparently quite similar, so I don't know if I should count that.