Winter Salad with Pomegranate, Spiced Pecans and Roquefort, fr. Gourmet Magazine

Here’s a delicious, festive salad that goes great with any holiday meal. Tip: if you have lots of other cooking to do, spice the pecans the day before to speed this up.

8 ounces Roquefort Cheese
1 large head Lettuce (or more if desired) cored and washed.
Raspberry Vinaigrette (see Below)
Seeds from 1 pomegranate (cut into quarters to remove the seeds)
1 cup Spiced Pecans (see Below)

Place the Roquefort in the freezer for 20 minutes before assembling the salad; this will make the cheese easy to crumble. Cut salad leaves into desired size. Dress with Raspberry Vinaigrette and top with pomegranate seeds, Spiced Pecans and Roquefort. Toss once before serving.

> Champagne Vinaigrette

1 tablespoon minced shallots
2 ½ tablespoons Raspberry vinegar
2 tablespoons olive oil
¼ teaspoon salt
Pinch of freshly ground black pepper

Soak the shallots in the vinegar for 15 minutes. Whisk the oil, salt and pepper into the shallot-vinegar mixture and serve.

> Spiced Pecans

1 cup fresh pecan halves or pieces.
¼ teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
¼ teaspoon ground ginger
¼ teaspoon ground allspice
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
pinch of salt
1teaspoon olive oil

Preheat oven to 350 F. Place the nuts onto a small cookie sheet and bake for 10 minutes. Mix the spices. Put the nuts into a small bowl; coat them with the oil and then the spice mixture. Return the coated nuts to the cookie sheet and bake for another 5 minutes. Remove the nuts from the oven and cool them on a paper towel.