Earthenware Sheep Cup by Ayumi Horie
One of the simplest and most universally liked dishes I serve at parties or take to a potluck is a wild rice salad with walnuts, cherries, parsley and an orange raspberry vinaigrette. All you do is mix together the cooked wild rice with finely chopped raw vegetables, a dried fruit, nuts or seeds and toss with an easy dressing. You might think of wild rice as a Thanksgiving food but this salad makes a great summer meal because all you have to cook is the wild rice and then add the other, uncooked, ingredients.
Originally, I got a version of this recipe from the Whole Foods website. It is like the one that shows up on their salad bar from time to time. I just varied it to meet my tastes. It is an extremely flexible recipe. Almost every ingredient in the salad may be substituted for by another depending on season and what you have on hand. No celery, use fennel or zucchini. No red onion, use scallions or shallots. No dried cherries, use cranberries, currants or apricots or substitute fresh berries, cherries or citrus sections. No walnuts, use almonds, pecans or pumpkin seeds. No red pepper, use green, orange or yellow peppers or jalapeños, jicama or leave it out altogether. I had sugar snap peas this week so I sliced some and tossed them in. If you don’t like the raspberry vinegar in the dressing, use wine, pomegranate or sherry vinegar instead.
Last week I had some leftover wild rice and I tried a completely different version, essentially rice mixed with a Greek salad minus the lettuce. I added chopped cucumber, radishes, scallions (I didn’t have any red onion), cherry tomatoes, arugula, crumbled feta cheese, oregano and a dash of cayenne to about an equal amount of wild rice and tossed it with a balsamic vinaigrette. It made a very tasty and quite satisfying summer supper plus it held up well for lunch the next day. You could also use the raspberry version as a main course since it contains nuts for protein, or top it with crumbled feta or goat cheese, baked tofu strips, bacon or cooked salmon and plate it on a bed of arugula or lettuce leaves.
Earthenware dish by Ayumi Horie
Wild rice is really a nutritional grass and like true rice, its cousin, it does not contain gluten. It can be blended with brown rice in this recipe, if you prefer a milder flavor or have leftover rice to use up. This salad is quite hearty and will last (and even improve in flavor) for a couple of days in the refrigerator. I often serve it at a buffet supper because it can sit out for hours. Every time, someone asks for the recipe.
WILD RICE SALAD WITH RASPBERRY VINAIGRETTE
Mix together:
- 4-5 cups cooked wild rice (I cook it like pasta in lots of water until tender and then drain)
- 1/2 cup finely chopped red onion
- 1 cup finely chopped celery
- 1 cup chopped fresh flat leaf parsley
- 1/2 cup chopped fresh red bell pepper
- 1/3 cup dried cherries, without pits or 1 cup fresh cherries, pitted and sliced
- 1/3 cup coarsely chopped walnuts, raw or lightly toasted
Toss with:
- 2 TBs raspberry vinegar
- 2 TBs orange juice
- 3 TBs olive oil
- Salt and pepper to taste
Serves 6 and keeps well for a few days refrigerated.
wheat, lemon red pepper, rosemary, black squid-ink and, my favorite, black pepper. Sometimes you can get lucky and arrive when chestnut, lemon, saffron or even chocolate are available. Ravioli fillings range from the usual cheese or cheese and spinach to pesto, goat cheese, seafood and chicken with smoked mozzarella and the occasional special like arugula and ricotta, pumpkin or Gorgonzola and walnut. (My son says he doesn’t like mushrooms but he loves Raffetto’s mushroom ravioli. Go figure!) Tortellini and potato gnocchi are made and sold here in a range of fillings and flavors. Happily for all of us, many varieties of the ravioli are available at stores like Fairway and Citarella and the jumbo ravioli are available at Zabar’s. Both the fresh and filled pastas freeze well, although I wouldn’t keep them in the freezer for more than a few months.
Raffetto’s was one of many Italian food stores in its West Village neighborhood and you can still find a few others 
open. Faicco’s Pork Store, dating from its first incarnation on Thompson Street in 1900, operates a couple blocks away on Bleecker Street, as does Pasticcerio Rocco, which opened in 1974, the youngster of the group. Caffe Reggio, claiming to have served the first cappuccino in New York, has offered espresso to generation after generation of NYU students and tourists since 1927 on MacDougal Street.
