Warm White Bean Salad

It is COLD here today (well, cold for Georgia, that is), and when it's cold I want to cook! And that's what I've been doing. A lot!

Here is one of my favorite quick recipes from one of my very favorite cookbooks from the Public Radio series The Splendid Table:

Warm White Bean Salad with Garlic and Rosemary
from How to Eat Supper by Lynne Rossetto Kasper
Serves 4

Ingredients

• 1/2 slice whole-grain bread, coarsely ground in a food processor (2 generous tablespoons crumbs) (I grind it in a spice grinder - works just as well)
• 3 T fresh grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
• Generous 1/2 t fresh-ground black pepper
• 5 large garlic cloves crushed with 1/2 t salt and coarsely chopped
• 1/4 c good-tasting extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/2 tight-packed T fresh rosemary leaves, coarsely chopped
• Two 15-ounce cans organic white beans (cannellini or Great Northern), drained and rinsed
• 1 large handful mixed salad greens (frisee and romaine, spring mix, or a blend of baby greens)
• Additional salt and fresh-ground black pepper

Directions

1. In a 12-inch skillet or saute pan over medium heat, toast the bread crumbs until lightly browned, stirring often. Transfer the crumbs to a small bowl to cool. When cooled, stir in the Parmigiano and pepper. Set aside.
2. In the same pan, slowly warm the garlic in the olive oil over low heat for 30 seconds to 1 minute. Stir in the rosemary, blending for another minute or so, taking care not to burn the garlic. It should be fragrant and just beginning to soften.
3. Immediately add the beans and fold them in very gently. Turn the heat to medium. Heat the beans through, about 3 minutes, occasionally lifting and turning them as they heat, as stirring will turn them to mush. Add greens and gently move them around in the pan until they are slightly wilted, 30 second to 1 minute. Turn into a bowl, top with bread-crumb mixture, and season with salt and pepper.

Enjoy!!

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My daily gratitude list:

* delicious soup in the fridge (it's the cold - it makes me food obsessed!!)
* plenty of sunshine and no humidity
* a warm dog snout on my lap
* another few days with Christmas decorations before they get put away