Hungry for arugula..

The first time I fell in love with arugula was in the most unlikely of places. It was a town called Sheffield, England, in a restaurant called Pizza Express.
When G and I first moved to Europe last year, the first destination we were scheduled to spend our next 4 months was Sheffield, England. Home of the Full Monty and I didn’t even know what else. We soon adjusted to the Yorkshire accent, and I was immediately enamoured by the Yorkshire habit of calling everyone “love”. No matter what anyone said, even if they were being rude, they could tack the word love at the end and it would make me feel all warm and tingly. A grunt and a push followed by “Get out of the way, love”, wouldn’t phase me a bit. It would only leave me smiling and excusing myself profusely as I rushed to step aside.

I had a much more difficult time adjusting to the very distinct Sheffield style, influenced by the fact that the city was home to two universities. And I was more than nervous to venture into a hairdresser lest I should end up with something much wilder than I could handle. I’m much more comfortable in my jeans and sweaters with one tone hair. It’s not to say that I disapproved, it's just that it was a style that was completely opposite to anything that could be found in my wardrobe. Or on my head.

But we had great fun during that 4 months, and we quickly learned that the Sheffielders, as I understand most Brits, love to drink and they love to drink fast. But when most of the bars close down at 11pm there are but a few hours after work to get yourself sauced, as they say. So there is little time wasted.

We were lucky enough to have found an apartment right near the city center, which was heavily populated with a variety of shops, restaurants and pubs. One of the restaurants we stumbled upon was a place called Pizza Express, which turned out to be much nicer than its name implies. It had a clean and modern interior and good ambient lighting. Good lighting can really make or break a place for me. And we were happy to discover that they actually do make a great pizza, which went well with the bottle of Chianti that we seemed to polish off each time we went there.

On one of our many visits there, I noticed that a new salad had appeared on their menu. I can’t actually recall its name, and their online menu doesn’t seem to refer to it anymore. Nonetheless, it was an arugula base, topped with a warm beefsteak tomato slice and a wheel of goat cheese, which had both been roasted together in the oven, leaving the goat cheese melted and creamy. The whole thing was drizzled with a warm basil pesto. The warmth of the pesto softened the arugula slightly and each bite melted in my mouth. From that moment on I never ordered their pizza again. This appetizer salad was a meal in itself and it was the only thing I wanted to eat when we were there. Well, that and a small bowl of olives to munch on while I waited enthusiastically for my salad.

Since then I have looked at arugula with new eyes. Although it is still at times too peppery and bitter for me, I continue to purchase it regularly with the goal of achieving that same arugula enlightenment that I had experienced in Sheffield.

I recently tried 2 new ways to use my arugula, which is found in abundance here in Heidelberg.

arugula salad and arugula basil pesto

Arugula Salad

I had read somewhere that a simple way to enjoy arugula is to dress it first with lemon juice, then drizzle with olive oil. I used my hands to coat the leaves, which is a technique that I have recently learned from Melissa at the Traveler’s Lunchbox. It is a great and gentle way to dress your leaves evenly. Finally, finish the salad with sea salt and top with shaved parmesan.
I enjoyed this salad. Again, at times I found the arugula still a bit too peppery for my taste. But I have read that the bigger the leaves are the more "bite" they have. So perhaps I just have to be more careful to sort through my bundle and weed out the large and bitter leaves. When I didn't bite into a bitter leaf, I found the simplicity of the flavours in this salad to be excellent. I would definitely prepare arugula in this way again.
I didn't use a recipe for this. Just a drizzle of this and a sprinkle of that. But it's simple enough that you could easily recreate it and just adjust it to your own taste.

Arugula and Basil Pesto from Epicurious.com

The second creation was an arugula basil pesto which turned out better than I even expected. I think it is even far better than the regular basil pesto that I’ve made before. And the recipe included the addition of some lemon zest which really brightened the flavour. I definitely recommend this recipe.
Variations: I used parmesan cheese and still loved the results.

3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
3 cups (loosely packed) fresh basil leaves
1 cup (loosely packed) fresh arugula
1/2 cup grated pecorino Romano cheese
1/3 cup pine nuts
2 garlic cloves, peeled
1/2 teaspoon grated lemon peel
2 tablespoons lukewarm water

Place 1/2 cup oil and next 6 ingredients in processor. Process to thick paste. With motor running, add remaining 1/4 cup oil and 2 tablespoons water to processor. Blend until smooth. Season pesto to taste with salt and pepper. (Can be made 2 days ahead. Pour thin layer of oil over pesto; cover and chill.) Makes about 1 1/2 cups.