Recipe Radicchio, Bresaola and Beetroot Salad

[Morning Glory]

These stunningly coloured radicchio leaves (pink radicchio and baby Gromula) are from Italy. They have a delicious mildly bitter flavour. The Bresaola, a spiced, air-dried beef is also imported from Italy but I've learned that its fairly easy to make your own. Using ricotta would keep the Italian theme but as I didn't have any I made some fresh cheese (very easy to do and takes minutes). I wonder if I went a bit overboard and added too many elements - I got immersed in thinking pink! I reckon this would work without the beetroot and plums.

Ingredients (serves 2)
Assorted raddiccio leaves
1 raw beetroot (I used candy cane beetroot)
Thin slices of Bresaola
Slices of fresh purple plum
Home-made fresh cheese (or use ricotta)

For the pickled beetroot
100ml white wine vinegar
1 tbsp caster sugar

For the home-made cheese:
500ml milk (I used semi-skimmed)
Salt to taste
A splash of vinegar

For the dressing:
Juice of one blood orange
1 tsp Dijon mustard
2 tbsp Olive oil

Method

1. To make the cheese, warm the milk in a saucepan and add a splash of vinegar and salt to taste. Heat until the milk splits into curds and whey (a few minutes). Drain (keep the whey to use in bread making or pancakes). Place the curds in cheesecloth or a strong paper towel. Squeeze dry.
2. To pickle the beetroot, whisk the sugar into the vinegar. Slice beetroot into paper thin slices and cover with the vinegar. Allow to steep for ten minutes.
3. Make the salad dressing by whisking together the orange juice, mustard and olive oil.
4. Dress the salad leaves before plating.
5. Place the salad leaves on a plate and arrange a few pieces of sliced plums and pickled beetroot slices in and around. Drape and curl the bresaola slices over the salad and add the cheese in small 'clumps'.

 

[Masticator]

I've made a bresaola "chunk" a few years ago..took a long time & a lot of patience..
Recipe was from a charcuterie cookbook..was quite good, but a bit too much rosemary for my liking.
Never ended up using it all..after a year in the freezer. ...a little bresaola goes a long way!

 

[Morning Glory]

..a little bresaola goes a long way!

It is packed with flavour and as you indicate you don't need much at any one time. The reason I thought it may be easy to make it at home was because I saw this:

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2011/may/11/how-to-make-bresaola

Call it bresaola, call it spiced, air-dried beef but it's one of the simplest bits of charcuterie to do at home and makes a great first project

The article does have very straightforward instructions. It states that it takes about 5 weeks for the total process but that is mainly just leaving it to its own devices.