Lentil Salad with Mozzarella Prosciutto

Today’s recipe is a salad from Williams-Sonoma Salads cookbook. In this recipe, cooked lentils are tossed with red wine vinegar dressing and served with prosciutto and fresh mozzarella cheese. To make it a bit meatier, I added some hot Italian sausage. The recipe called for French green lentils and these lentils look like whole masoor. I had some masoor in my pantry and made the salad with it. I was surprised how good masoor, fresh mozzarella and prosciutto combination was. I made it for dinner last night and it was quite filling. This salad and mango milkshake was our dinner.

Source: Williams Sonoma's Salad
Total Time: 45 – 50 minutes
Preparation Time: 15 minutes
Cooking Time: 30 minutes
Serves: 4 – 6

Ingredients:

• 1 ¼ cup Whole Masoor (can use French green lentils)
• 4 cups Water
• ½ - ¾ tsp. Salt
• ½ - ¾ tsp. Black Pepper Powder (adjust to taste)
• 3 tbsp. Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• ¼ cup Red Wine Vinegar
• 2 ½ tbsp. Red Onions finely chopped (can add more depending on one’s preference)
• 4 tbsp. Basil Leaves chopped or julienned
• ¼ lb. (125 g.) Prosciutto Slices
• 4 Hot Italian Sausages, cooked (opt. and this is my addition)
• ⅓ – ½ lb. fresh Mozzarella Cheese

Preparation:

• Wash lentils several times and keep aside. In a saucepan bring 4 cups of water to boil. Add ½ tsp. salt and rinsed lentils to boiling water. Reduce the heat to medium low, cover and cook the lentils until tender, for about 20 – 25 minutes. I cooked for 21 minutes. Lentils should be tender and hold shape. Lentils can get mushy very soon and keep an eye on the lentils during the last 3-4 minutes of cooking.
• Remove lentils from heat and drain. Let the lentils cool to room temperature or run the lentils under cold water.
  While the lentils are cooking, finely chop or mince the red onions, chop basil leaves, tear prosciutto slices into 1” wide strips. Cook the sausage as per the instructions on the package and slice them.
• In a bowl, whisk together extra virgin olive oil, red wine vinegar, chopped onions, black pepper powder, ½ the basil leaves, ¾ of the prosciutto and sliced sausages keeping aside few slices. Add this vinaigrette to lentils and toss well.
• To serve, spoon lentils onto a plate or platter, arrange mozzarella slices around the lentils and edges of the platter. Sprinkle remaining basil leaves, prosciutto and sausage, and serve.

Suggestions:

• I like red onions in salads and felt I could have added more.
• Next time I make the salad, I would try adding some finely chopped green chilies. If one slices spicy salad, this is one variation that could be tried.

This day in 2011: Mexican Rice

Events: This is my entry for this week's Cooking from Cookbook Challenge and Susan's My Legume Love Affair # 72, an event started by Susan currently organized by Lisa.