Salad as explanation: watermelon and feta cheese and salad

Several of Annalena's more postmodern readers may very well catch the referent, when she rights "salad as explanation."  She will leave it to Dr to be Mullins to see if he can identify the referent.  In any event, the idea behind this is simple. Perhaps too simple.    A salad is an explanation because it explains what is in the cook's mind.   And most of us do not allow our minds to control what we do when we make our salads; rather, we let other thoughts, other flights, control.  And that, ragazzi, is where many salads fail. In a few words, they are overcomplicated.  Explanations should be simple.  So should salads.

When Annalena makes a salad,  putting aside the dressing for a moment (and we SHALL return to that), she  NEVER uses more than four components.  Indeed, usually it is but three.  Salad greens of some sort, be they lettuce, arugula, spinach, escarole, etc.  Sometimes, this is all.  And it is more than enough.  But sometimes, a colorful ingredient: something to contrast the green color.  Beets come to mind, both red and gold.  Or pomegranate seeds.  Or slices of apple, now that we are in the throes of autumn.  Or blueberries when they are available.  And if a third is added, something to contrast the first two.  Salad is crunchy, but one cannot say it is crispy.  Neither are beets, or the aforementioned fruits.  So, something crispy.  Toasted nuts for example.  Or croutons, simply fried or baked with olive oil.  Or slices of fennel (a vegetable much on Annalena's mind of now, as you will all find out in due course.).

Now, you put down your hand.  To Annalena's taste, a salad that goes much beyond this, if beyond it at all, becomes too complex to satisfy the role of a salad.  Keep in mind that Annalena serves her salads at the end of the meal, where they are intended to begin to give the diner a short rest if a dessert and cheese are to follow, or to indicate closure.  Scientific evidence shows that when crispy greens are eaten, the muscles of the digestive system do begin to contact,  indicating  "ENOUGH."   

Isn't that interesting?  So if you clot your salad with too much, then you are confusing your own biology.

Think about it, ragazzi:  can you think of many things better than a simple tomato and basil salad, with perhaps mozzarella, but perhaps not?  Think of a great Caesar salad, that wonderful Mexican invention (yes, carissimi, it is Mexican in origin). But most of all, think of the refreshing, wonderful green salads you have eaten.  As Annalena has written before,  have you ever wondered why many restaurants do not serve salads that are simply  greens?  Ah, it is because they are too difficult to make.  When one makes a simple green salad, it is akin to walking the tightrope, or the balance beam.  One thing out of synch , and the whole enterprise collapses.  Simple is not easy.

How did we get here?  Oh, yes, of course.  Watermelon and feta cheese salad.  Again, we are visiting food items which will not be with us much longer.  The season for local watermelon, will soon leave us ragazzi.  So get them while you can, and enjoy them. If you do enjoy them as fruit,  then eat your fill.  Annalena and the Guyman like watermelon, but "not that way" as people sometimes say.   But they do like it.  So, when Annalena saw a recipe recently, for watermelon and feta salad,  she had to try it.  She has made it a couple of times now.  Nay, three times.  Once with only melon and cheese.  Once with melon, cheese and red onion.  And once with melon, cheese and arugula.  All were wonderful.  All were easy, and no explanation is necessary.  Let us proceed.

The ratios here are important.  You need about four cups of cubed watermelon.  Try to get a sugar baby or some other type which does not have seeds.  In Annalena's experience, dark skinned melons are usually seedless, but not always.  ASK.  And don't buy a precut melon or those ghastly cubes trapped in little plastic containers.  No, no no.  A small, 7-8 pound melon, will yield enough for two salads of the size contemplated here,  and if you are a fan of the fruit itself, you have breakfast or lunch  for another day.

Ok, so you have cubed your watermelon. Put it in a salad bowl.  Drain an 8 ounce package of feta cheese.  You can get fetas from all over the world.  Annalena recently saw Greek, Turkish, Bulgarian, Romanian, and French feta cheeses in her market. You can also buy local feta.  Which one?  ASK.  If you are a fan of salty, ask for the saltiest one.  If you are a fan of not so salty, proceed accordingly.  They are all correct.   

Once you have drained the cheese, break it into irregular, small chunks over the watermelon. 

You are pretty much done.  Even less salty feta is salty, so you don't need to salt the salad  (which almost seems contradictory, since salad derives from the same word as salt).  Speaking of, perhaps you would prefer to use ricotta salata here?  Do. Please do and tell us how it worked.

Now for your dressing.  VERY complicated.... Get a bottle of your best olive oil and pour a couple of tablespoons over the cheese and watermelon.  Done.  Unless you want pepper.  Then  grate some fresh stuff over it. 

You can serve this, and everyone you serve it to will want a second helping. 


Now, if you are so inclined, Annalena thinks this is much better if you take half of a red onion, slice it into very thin rings, and put it into the salad as well.  If you fear for the sulfur of the onion, let the slices sit in  iced cold water while you prepare the other ingredients, drain them , dry them, and put them in the bowl.   

Or, if you crave something green, and you like to spend time looking at color contrasts in your salad bowl:  baby arugula.  About half as much by volume as the watermelon . Or... two cups.  Put that in the salad bowl first, and then add the watermelon and the cheese.  Again, all you need is the olive oil. 

You do not toss this salad.  The watermelon looks sturdy, but it is not.  If you stir too vigorously, you will break it, and the cheese into minuscule pieces.   

And there you are.  A lovely salad to transition us from summer to fall.

And if you are mystified by the title, here are some clues which you can google.  "A rose is a rose is a rose"   and "when you get there, there's no there there."

Happy hunting, ragazzi.