Salad of Warm Vegetables

Allow me a moment to ruminate on Spain, the fine and noble country where torture became art, the first novel was born, and where the ultimate culinary dichotomy - cold soup served with warm salad - was perfected. For these and for many other things, allow me to thank you, Spain... except for maybe the torture. We could have done without that.

Anyway, since I covered cold soup last week by making my first gazpacho, I figured I would tackle the other half of the equation by making a traditional warm vegetable salad. Let me emphasize that while this might not sound like a lot of food or look like a lot of food, oh-my-god, this salad is a lot of food. Just saying. Okay, so onto the the recipe.

Ingredients:

- 3/4 lb. ripe tomatoes, quartered and sliced into eighths.

- 3/4 lb. green bell peppers, sliced

- 3/4 lb. red bell peppers, sliced

- 1 small onion, roughly chopped into 1 in. chunks

- 1 -2 cloves of garlic, crushed

- 4 - 5 slices of prosciutto or Serrano ham, proscuitto

- 3 -4 hard boiled eggs, sliced

- 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

- 1/8 cup red wine or sherry vinegar

- dash of cumin

- kosher or sea salt

- pepper

- 3 cups of arugula (optional)

Process:

1. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and coat with cooking spray. Preheat the oven to 500 degrees.

2. Placed the tomatoes, red and green bell peppers and onion onto the baking sheet. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, and roast in the oven for 10 - 15 minutes, stirring occassioanlly, until the peppers are the tiniest bit charred, the onions are gently browned and the tomatoes have softened but the skins are still intact. Remove from the oven and set aside.

3. While the veggies are cooling slightly, put the oil, vinegar, crushed garlic and cumin in a bowl and gently mix.

4. Put the veggies in a serving dish, along with the eggs, prosciutto and dressing. Gently toss. Serve the salad warm, alone or over arugula.

* This salad goes very well with a good chewy or grainy bread. I could even see serving it over pasta or rice, although then it would cease to be a salad, and it's ever so nice as a salad. Any way you decide to eat it, it's quick and filling and healthy. Just the thing to make you feel good.