My favorite salad.

Bresola, sliced thin (proscuitto is nice too)

Big handful of arugula or mixed greens
Artichoke hearts and picholine olives, chopped rough
Olive oil
White wine vinegar
Salt
Pepper

Toss toss toss.

Pile greens on bresola, top with one more slice, add some curls of whatever hard italian cheese you like, and voila: delicious salad.

I made some noises earlier in the week about my birthday dinner. Quick recap: it turned out alright, but I don't really remember making all of it. Champagne kind of has that effect on me. In any case, I do remember that I did not brush enough of the salt off the salt-crusted pork tenderloin, which resulted in some intense dehydration the next day. Water never tasted so good! The greatest thing about this recipe, though, was the herbs in the salt. I used sage and I wasn't sure if the flavor would really come through, with all the salt. But it did, and it was quite savory. I seared the pork first, then sealed it up in its salty-sagey igloo and roasted it for about half an hour, along with some little yukon gold potatoes. The result? Fragrant, crusty on the outside, but lovely and juicy and chewy on the inside. Pork: good.

Also, the apple cake we made (thank you, Happy Luddite--sous chef extraordinaire!) was exactly what I wanted. Spicy, overloaded with apples, baked up into a rich, craggy brown crust. Fall in food form. I could have just had cake for dinner and been in heaven.

Oh, and the kohlrabi. Everybody go out and get some, right now. Roasted with a little olive oil and salt and pepper, it is delicious. I think there's a good amount of sugar/starch in there because mine got a nice brown crust on it and tasted something like a potato, but lighter and sweeter, almost like a daikon. But it's not chunky or fibrous like a squash or other root vegetables--it gets very tender and velvety. No wonder it was so good in soup.

Tonight I'm going to make Marcella Hazan's bolognese and serve it up with some porcini pasta. It's rare that I eat pasta but yesterday I just kind of got the craving. Good blustery day food. I'm excited to see how the sauce turns out. It's a pretty traditional preparation, made with milk and nutmeg and a mix of ground meats, with tomatoes added almost as an afterthought. Definitely not the meat sauce I'm accustomed to making.

I'll also be making some more brussel sprouts, in an effort to counteract the calorie-laden meat/pasta/dairy trifecta. (But it's OK if I make the sprouts with pancetta, right? Cue arteries seizing.)

Stay tuned, faithful three readers....