Persimmon, Blue Cheese, and Pistachio Salad

There are times when simple is better. If you're a home cook you might follow your own catalog of recipes and/or you may be the home cook who likes to follow the recipes of others in cookbooks, magazines, and blogs. But there are those times when you realize that you don't always need a recipe. You just need to follow a basic structure.

The basic structure for this posting is: Fruit, cheese, and nuts topped with a simple vinaigrette.
Let's look more closely at the ingredients.

Fruit = sweet

Cheese = fatty, savory, and salty

Nuts = crunchy, chewy, and salty

Vinaigrette = flavorful, oily, and a bonding element across all of the above tying it all together

This all started when a friend recently told us that his Fuyu persimmon tree was full of ripe fruit and he had a bag of persimmons for us from his backyard.

I originally went to my catalog recipe for Persimmon and Grilled Cheese Sandwich but I wanted something fresher and lighter.

We had recently checked out a Bon Appetit magazine from our library and there was an article in there that laid out the structure. I took that and ran with it.

But you can apply the same structure with other similar ingredients:

Fruit = Persimmon, apple, pear, oranges, Clementines

Cheese = Blue cheese, Gouda, Parmesan, ricotta

Nuts = Pistachios, hazelnuts, cashews, peanuts, walnuts, pecans

Vinaigrette = Any neutral oil, a neutral vinegar (rice wine), and seasoning (garlic, herbs, mustard, etc.)

For the vinaigrette, I used one of many in my catalog but next time I might use a different one.
Again, the structure is loose. Don't follow this verbatim but adapt as I did.

Persimmon, Blue Cheese, and Pistachio Salad

Ingredients:

• Fuyu persimmons - 3 ever so slightly ripe, peeled and sliced
• Pistachios - about 2 Tbsp. roasted and salted
• Blue cheese - crumbled
• Simple vinaigrette - see below

Vinaigrette:

• 1/4 cup white wine or rice wine vinegar
• 1 Tbsp. Dijon mustard
• 1 tsp. honey
• 1 small clove garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup oil
• black pepper and salt to taste

Directions:

• Thoroughly mix the vinaigrette ingredients with a whisk and let sit for a period of time
• Cut off the top and bottom of the persimmon and peel off the sides. Cut into slices. Distribute slices on a dinner plate.
• Crumble cheese on top
• Sprinkle the pistachios over everything
• Drizzle vinaigrette over the salad

Enjoy.