Make This: Raw Mushroom Salad

with pecorino, walnuts, and salmoriglio (featuring wonder valley)

I made this salad for my buddy Jay Carrol. Jay is the co-founder of Wonder Valley, along with this his wife, Allison. They are featuring this same recipe on their website among an already great collection of recipes using their products.

Wonder Valley is one of my favorite brands - a celebration of olive oil in many forms. I love olive oil. Not only do they grow and mill their own oil, they also produce bath and body products using their oil. The products are beautifully packaged and high-quality - they remind me of Officine Universelle Buly meets 60’s and 70’s Laurel Canyon iconography. The Hinoki Soap is a house favorite, and lasts MUCH longer than most bar soaps. (My runner-up soap is Dr. Bronner’s Peppermint, a real delight in the summer.)

As I’ve said before, olive oil is the best sauce, and we deploy it liberally in our house.

Using their Olio Nuevo, I’m featuring the simple dressing Salmoriglio, which I first discovered at Via Carota years ago. The simple sauce is versatile - I use it to adorn grilled meats (steak and chicken), roasted vegetables, or even as a crowning touch to a plate of hummus.

For this recipe, Salmoriglio finishes a plate of raw, thinly sliced mushrooms adorned with chopped walnuts and shaved cheese. Recipe below:

Mushroom Salad with Salmoriglio

to make the Salmoriglio, combine:

1/2 cup olive oil (Wonder Valley!)

juice of one lemon, freshly squeezed

splash of water (1 ounce)

1 large garlic clove, grated

large pinch of chili flake and oregano (add more to suit)

To plate the salad, find the best quality mushrooms available to you. Porcini are ideal. For the image above, I used Cremini. Slice them thinly (you could use a mandolin for this), and scatter them about a large plate or platter so the base is well covered but you don’t have thick layers of mushrooms atop each other.

Top the mushrooms with shaved Pecorino - enough to cover the mushrooms in a thin curtain of cheese. Scatter chopped walnuts across the dish. I use these.

Finish by dressing liberally with the Salmoriglio, using a spoon to reach every bit.

Finish with some freshly cracked black pepper and some flaky salt.