Rocket (Arugula) Salad

There’s only one drawback to sewing rocket (known in the US and Canada as arugula), the leaves make excellent nurseries for caterpillars that can strip the lot overnight if you don’t keep an eagle eye out for the tiny dots of yellow butterfly eggs laid, cunningly, under the leaves. I’ve solved that problem (as again I hope you can see) by growing them in a half barrel with a wire cage structure over them (fashioned by my late husband to protect his seedlings) and draped a net secured with clothes pegs over the lot.

I now have enough rocket to make rocket salad which is simplicity itself, provided you treat it with care. At first I tried stripping the stems and tossing it with a dressing. To my dismay it wilted. Then I tried a next recipe that advised leaving the stems on and “dressing” it gently with my fingers — and it worked.

Thanks to my bed of rocket in the backyard I don’t have to buy lettuce for a green salad to accompany my main dish. Today I give you the very simplest of rocket salads; we’ll try more recipes when my rocket bed is in full leaf (and production, therefore, of rocket leaves).

Here’s how I prepare my rocket salad with:

Ingredients

Rockets leaves (12-18 or so for a salad for one)

3 parts olive oil (for a salad for one I reckon 1 ? teaspoons)

1 part balsamic vinegar (1/2 teaspoon for a salad for one person)

1/4 teaspoon sugar (for a salad for one)

Freshly ground pepper to taste

Grated Parmesan cheese (fresh, if you can afford it) to scatter over.

Method

Wash, but do not strip the stems of the rocket.

Spin-dry the leaves in a salad spinner (I do both in the spinner, one after the other) and place them in salad bowls.

Put the dressing ingredients, except the Parmesan, in a screw topped jar and shake until (hopefully) thick (mine refused to cooperate, but tasted good just the same).

Pour the dressing over the rocket leaves and “dress” gently with finger tips.

Scatter grated Parmesan over the rocket salad and serve.

Serves 1.