Raw Carrot Salad, or Insalata di Carote Crude: This is an unusual recipe -- though carrots are extremely common in Italy they are often considered an herb to be used to provide flavor to a cooked dish, and only occasionally appear in salads. Even rarer is their appearance as the main ingredient of a salad. The recipe is from Serravezza, a town on the Versilian coastal plain to the west of Lucca.
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Ingredients:
- Carrots
- Walnut meats
- Garlic
- Bread
- Vinegar
- Salt
- Pepper
- Olive oil
- Lemon juice
Preparation:
Select fleshy carrots whose centers haven't gone to wood, and grate them on a stainless steel grater, lest they discolor. When you are done, prepare the sauce: Finely mince or grind about a dozen walnut meats with a couple of cloves of garlic, and an egg-sized chunk of bread less the crust that's been dipped in lemon juice. Season the pesto made from these ingredients with a little salt, pepper, and olive oil, adding the oil a little at a time. Season the carrots, and if you find them too sweet for your taste, add some more lemon juice.
