Insalata Grande

Serves 12
1 pound mixed greens, costco size
1 pound button mushrooms, sliced and roasted
1 bag pine nuts, toasted
1 14 oz. can artichoke hearts, quartered, not marinated
6 medium tomato, cut in half, sliced in half-moons
olives
3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
parmesan-reggiano, shaved curls

Directions:
Roast mushrooms per linked recipe. Mix extra-virgin olive oil,
balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper together. Dress the mixed greens
with some of the dressing. Should be lightly coated. Use some of the
dressing to coat the tomatoes once cut, also use some on the
artichokes. Then combine the mushrooms, pine nuts, tomatoes, and
artichokes in the salad and toss. Using a vegetable shave parmesan
onto the top of the salad.

Toasting any type of nuts
Turn your oven on to anything under 299 degrees, don't do 300, 299 is the magic number, your nuts will never burn.
Using whatever type of nut you want spread them on a cookie sheet in a single layer. They can be touching. Then if it is at 299, you can roast for a shorter period of time like 20-40 minutes depending on your nut, fatter nuts like almonds take longer to cook than lets say pine nuts. Set your timer for 15 minutes and check every 15 minutes to see if they are as dark as you want. If you want to do it low and slow, set your oven at 200 and then leave them for 2 hours, checking them every 30 minutes.


Roasted Mushrooms
1 pound sliced white mushrooms
2 tablespoons olive oil
Kosher Salt
Freshly Ground black pepper

1. Adjust oven rack to lowest position and heat oven to 450 degrees.

2. Toss mushrooms with olive oil and salt and pepper to taste in medium bowl. Arrange in a single layer on a large low-sided roasting pan or jelly-roll pan. Roast until released juices have nearly evaporated and mushroom surfaces facing pan are browned, 12 to 15 minutes. If you pick one up the bottom will be caramelized. Remove pan from oven and turn mushrooms with a metal spatula. Continue to roast until mushroom liquid has completely evaporated and mushrooms are brown all over, about 5 to 10 minutes longer. Serve.