By Six weeks to the wedding and I have the list. Not Patty binder list — my list. The things that are mine to do: the dessert table, which I am making mostly from scratch over the three days before the wedding. The potato pancakes for the reception. My vows, which I have started drafting three times and deleted twice. I keep writing something that sounds right and then reading it back and thinking: is this true enough. It is. But I want it to be the kind of true that needs no editing.
I made a lasagna this week with the bolognese sauce I have been simmering once a month since December — ground beef and pork, carrots and celery and onion, tomato paste and wine, three hours minimum, the sauce that is always better the second day. Layered with fresh pasta sheets I made in the stand mixer (pasta attachment, which Ryan got me for my birthday along with the machine, I should have mentioned this) and bechamel and Parmesan. It took most of a Sunday. Ryan said it was the best thing I had ever made. I say that approximately once a month and I mean it each time. This one I really meant.
The stand mixer pasta attachment has changed my cooking in a way I am still cataloging. I can make fresh pasta now in the time it used to take to boil water. I made tagliatelle twice and fettuccine once and the lasagna sheets and a batch of egg noodles for the soup on Wednesday. Ryan has started referring to the stand mixer as the important machine and I have not corrected him.
Six weeks. The vows are on the third draft and getting closer. The dress is altered and hanging in the closet in a bag and I open the bag once a day just to look at it. The Babcia Rose is 87 and making pierogi for my wedding. That is the sentence. That is the one I keep coming back to.
That lasagna took most of Sunday — the bolognese, the bechamel, the fresh pasta sheets from the stand mixer Ryan calls the important machine — and by the time it came out of the oven I had used up every good thing I had left in me. What I needed alongside it was something that required almost nothing: no simmering, no layering, no three-hour commitment. This Italian spinach salad was that thing. Crisp and bright and sharp with good dressing, it cut right through the richness of everything we’d built, and it came together while the lasagna rested. Six weeks out from the wedding and I am already learning which battles to save my energy for.
Easy Italian Spinach Salad
Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 0 minutes | Total Time: 10 minutes | Servings: 4
Ingredients
- 6 oz fresh baby spinach (about 6 packed cups)
- 1/2 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
- 1/4 cup thinly sliced red onion
- 1/3 cup pitted kalamata olives, halved
- 1/4 cup pepperoncini slices
- 1/3 cup shaved or shredded Parmesan
- 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 1/2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
- 1 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
- Make the dressing. In a small bowl or jar, whisk together the olive oil, red wine vinegar, Dijon mustard, Italian seasoning, garlic powder, salt, and pepper until well combined. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed.
- Build the salad. Add the baby spinach to a large serving bowl. Top with the cherry tomatoes, red onion, olives, and pepperoncini.
- Dress and toss. Drizzle the dressing over the salad and toss gently to coat all the leaves evenly. Start with about 3/4 of the dressing and add more to taste.
- Finish and serve. Scatter the shaved Parmesan over the top. Serve immediately alongside lasagna or any Italian main — this salad does not hold well once dressed, so time it to the table.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 165 | Protein: 5g | Fat: 13g | Carbs: 7g | Fiber: 2g | Sodium: 480mg