Kale Salad with Fresh Ricotta and Walnuts

Do you guys ever notice that there is, like, one salad recipe on this blog? This blog that's been around for several years now? That's no oversight, my loves--that's me silently saying I hate salads. Salads are f*&%ing boring. Don't get me wrong, I love green juices. I "drink my greens" every single day (and play a pretty significant role in keeping Juice Press doing robust business, I'd like to think). But that's a juice with all kinds of great stuff in there, including a fun little spicy ginger kick at the end of every sip. (Doctor Green Juice is my jam.) Yum. Salads, on the other hand, have always seemed notoriously lackluster in the taste department, in the texture department, in the I-want-to-eat-this department, etc, etc. You get the point.

Took me a while to get out of that funk, yet here I am on the other side, all due to a deceivingly simple kale salad that managed to combine some of my very favorite food things in life to make for an extremely fun-to-eat entity. Think fried sage leaves, almonds toasted in sunflower oil, dollops of fresh, creamy ricotta, and a vinaigrette that offers a subtle shot of bracing astringency. If you too are a lifelong salad hater, this combo will make you a convert, trust me.

Kale Salad with Fresh Ricotta and Walnuts
From The New Midwestern Table, by Amy Thielen
Ingredients:
3 tablespoons minced shallots
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 tablespoons sherry vinegar or white wine vinegar
5 tablespoons sunflower oil (preferably locally made and cold-pressed)
Fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
6 cups thinly sliced kale (from about 2 bunches)
3/4 cup broken walnuts
12 fresh sage leaves
3/4 cup fresh ricotta

Directions:
For the vinaigrette, mix together the shallots, lemon juice, vinegar, 3 tablespoons of the sunflower oil, and 1/2 teaspoon each of the salt and pepper in a small bowl.

Put the kale in a large bowl and toss with the vinaigrette. Combine the walnuts and the remaining 2 tablespoons sunflower oil in a small skillet set over low heat. Season with a pinch each of salt and pepper and cook, stirring often, until the nuts turn a shade darker and smell fragrant, 5 to 7 minutes. Scoop the nuts from the oil and add the sage leaves to the skillet.

Cook, gently stirring, until the leaves turn crisp, about 3 minutes. Remove the sage leaves, saving them for garnish, and add the oil in the skillet to the kale salad.

To serve, arrange the kale salad on a shallow platter. Drop dollops of ricotta cheese over the kale, and scatter the toasted walnuts and crisp sage leaves over the salad.

Serves 4 to 6