Happy Memorial Day Weekend to all! Today I’m excited about a guest post I’m doing on RecipeLion, a recipe and cooking website from Prime Publishing that offers recipes, videos, healthy eating advice, party ideas and cooking techniques from top chefs, home cooks and experts. They have a focus on healthy cooking and eating, and when Matt asked me to share a traditional Memorial Day dish with a healthy twist, my thoughts went immediately back to my childhood.
Memorial Day weekends of my youth were always spent in one of two places. Either my dad dragged us all to the Monongahela River (near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) for a weekend of boating (rain or shine), or we stayed home and went to the neighborhood holiday picnic. You might think a weekend of boating would be my choice, but I actually preferred the big neighborhood get-togethers.
Ours was a neighborhood that was defined primarily by a single road that looped back to itself in the shape of a lasso being thrown, pulling us together for Christmas caroling, ice skating, and holiday potluck picnics on grassy lawns on either side of a wide creek. I can’t say with all honesty that my teen years were a favorite decade for me, like many teens it was more a time to just get through, but I have a lot of great memories of those holiday picnics. The parents would organize games for the younger set, and catch up on family news over a wide variety of potluck dishes, while the uber-cool teens strolled around in cut-off jeans. And for one day, the school popularity caste system evaporated in the warmth of the sun, and it was just one big friendly community celebrating the freedoms of summer vacation.
My mom was a cook by the book kind of girl, and developed over time a wonderful menu of dependable dishes she became known for. At Thanksgiving it was her Pecan Pies; at the height of summer, Blueberry Pie; and for summer picnics, baked beans. Her baked beans were cooked with bacon strips, mustard, ketchup, and brown sugar; and were the best I’d ever had. I could make a whole meal out of those beans, and would’ve if I could have gotten away with it. My mom is gone now, and I’ve sadly lost track of her recipe, so I decided to create this healthy beans dish in honor of her dish and the memories we shared at those picnics by the creek.
And don’t forget to head over to RecipeLion to check out the other Memorial Day posts they’ve been featuring all week! Thanks again Matt for featuring this recipe as one of your Memorial Day weekend guest posts!!
Grilled Fennel and Cannellini Bean Salad
Ingredients
Salad
- 1 large fennel bulb
- 1 cup white wine
- Pinch each salt, pepper, dried thyme and lemon zest
- Olive oil
- 2 cups cooked cannellini beans or one 17-ounce can
- 4 slices pancetta, fried whole until crispy
- 2/3 cup grape tomatoes, sliced in half
- Parmesan cheese shavings
Dressing
- 1 large garlic clove, peeled and smashed
- 1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 5 fresh sage leaves, roughly torn
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- Freshly ground pepper
Instructions
Bring a large pot of water with the wine to a boil, and blanch the fennel for 10 minutes. Remove and set aside to cool. Slice the bulb in half, and into quarters. Slice the fennel in ¼” thin wedges, keeping the core intact to hold each wedge together. Lightly dust the surfaces with salt, pepper, thyme and lemon zest, and grill for 10 minutes each side, or until the fennel softens, but still has a slight crunch. Grill longer if you prefer a softer fennel.
Make the dressing using ideally a mortar and pestle set. Place the smashed garlic clove in the bowl of the set and sprinkle with salt. Using the pestle, smash the garlic clove until it liquefies. Add the lemon juice and vigorously stir with the pestle. Add the sage leaves and continue stirring and smashing the garlic. Add the olive oil while stirring. Add a little pepper.
Combine the beans and tomatoes and toss with 1 ½ tablespoons of dressing. Lay on a serving plate and top them with the pancetta rings and grilled fennel. Top with the remaining dressing and a few shavings of Parmesan cheese.
Your description of where you lived and the Memorial Day memories is so vivid I almost feel like I am there. Your Mom’s baked beans sound wonderful and I really love your updated bean salad, the grilled fennel and beans and can’t forget the pancetta of course with the lemon sage dressing is fantastic and I think you did your Mom proud with such a wonderful salad.
Thanks so much Suzanne. I’m sitting here just smiling at your wonderful comment. I hope you’re having a relaxing and fun holiday weekend
I adore fennel, what a great recipe! Can’t wait to throw it on the grill : )
Thanks Abby! Fennel is one of my favorite vegetables! Definitely grill it, but be sure to blanch it first. It’s a tough vegetable.
I also love fennel – this salad sounds perfect for a bbq!
Thanks Lynda! Happy Memorial Day Weekend to you and your family!
Loved your family Memorial Day story. I wish I could remember Memorial Days as a kid. My mom was known for pies too, especially apple pie made with Betty Crocker’s short-cut pie crust recipe. It’s worth a try for anyone wary of making pie crusts http://www.getcookingsimply.com/pdf/ShortCutPieCrust061010.pdf
Thanks Rosemary, and thanks so much for the link to the pie crust! I’ll be digging into making fruit pies when we get home and this will come in handy!!
This looks absolutely fantastic. Congratulations on top 9 today!
Thanks Baker Street! I had no idea I’d made Top 9 until your comment. Really excited!!
Congrats on a top 9! It’s a beautiful salad.
Thanks Trish! I’m excited about Top 9!!
Congratulations on making the foodbuzz Top 9!
Thanks so much DB!! Excited!!