This week I made a salad from a cookbook called In a Copper Kettle. It's a 1960s collection of recipes from all over the world. I let the salad marinate for a full day before tasting it. The final product was crisp and so refreshing. It would be a perfect summertime side dish. And it looks pretty on a table!
The original recipe was taken from the menu at Zimmerleuten, a Zurich restaurant inside a 14th century house on the Limmat River. From what I can tell, the building is a guild house for carpenters and the restaurant still operates today. The recipe has an introduction that describes the place:
"The Limmat, fresh from its ice bath in great blue Zurich lake, serenely flows down its street-lined course. Swans, lovely and bad tempered, move puppet-like, begging their bread from children in the river-balconied hotels. Couples, arm in arm, meander along the flowered paths, or stand gazing at the summer scene. Bells from the great towered churches ring, and ring again. Then, to the ancient Gothic guildhouses along quay, and up a wide stone stairway to one overlooking the whole peaceful scene, the Restaurant Zimmerleuten."
Green Bean Salad, Zimmerleuten, Switzerland
Ingredients
green beans clove garlic
chicken broth rosemary
white wine sage
onion pepper
olive oil parsley
white wine vinegar sweet paprika
sugar
Steam 1 1/2 pounds whole green beans in a chicken broth lightly flavored with white wine, until barely tender. Drain well.
Thinly slice 2 large onions and separate the rings. Toss together beans and onions (gently, so as not to break or mash the beans). Marinate, covered in refrigerator, in the following blend, for at least 1/2 a day, tossing occasionally.
1 cup olive oil
3/4 cup white wine vinegar
1 1/2 tablespoon sugar
2 cloves crushed garlic
1/4 teaspoon rosemary
1/8 teaspoon sage
salt and pepper to taste
Serve, ice-cold, sprinkled with fresh minced parsley and a light dusting of sweet paprika.