Salad with Warm Goat Cheese

serves 6

This recipe is from Ina Garten’s Barefoot Contessa Parties! It’s been years since I have made this, so happy to have come across it while leafing through tagged pages in this cookbook.

Ingredients
  • 1 11 ounce log of plain Montrachet
  • 2 extra large egg whites beaten with 1 T water (keep 1 yolk for dressing)
  • Fresh white bread crumbs (cut the crusts off white bread, cube it and pulse in a food processor for 15 seconds, until finely crumbed)
  • Enough mixed salad greens for 6
  • Enough olive oil and unsalted butter for frying the cheese
For the Dressing
  • 2 TBL good cider vinegar
  • 2 TBL good champagne vinegar
  • Pinch of sugar
  • ½ tsp Kosher salt, or to taste
  • ¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 extra large egg yolk (you can substitute 1 TBL mayo for egg yolk)
  • 1 cup good olive oil
Instructions
  • Slice the Montrachet into twelve ½ inch slices
  • Dip each slice into the beaten egg whites, then the bread crumbs
  • Place slices on a rack and chill for 15 minutes
  • For the dressing, place the vinegars, sugar, salt, pepper and egg yolk in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade and blend for 1 minute (note: I only own a medium sized black & decker chopper and it’s fine for this).
  • With the motor running, slowly pour the olive oil through the feed tube until the vinaigrette is thickened.
  • Season to taste
  • Toss the salad greens with enough dressing to moisten, then divide them among six plates
  • Melt 1 TBL olive oil and 1 TBL butter in a pan over medium-high heat until just under smoking
  • Cook the goat cheese rounds quickly on both sides until browned on the outside but not melted inside
  • Top each salad with 2 warm rounds and serve.

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