This Red Pepper, Mozzarella And Pesto Salad Pops With Colour And Flavour

When London-based food writer Alexandra Stacey called me the other day, it was almost dinnertime in Provence, France, where she was visiting with family. "I've just been cutting tomatoes,” she said. "The markets here are just bursting.”

Stacey, who shares recipes and stories on her Instagram account, @frenchfamilyfood, is rarely far from a garden, market or CSA box. She's something of a salad aficionado, bringing a French laissez-faire ease to recipes such as green beans with blood oranges, avocado and hazelnut pesto; poached salmon with steamed potatoes and leeks; lentils with nectarines, flowering thyme and herbes de Provence. Today's recipe, for a Roasted Red pepper Salad With Mozzarella, Olives and Pesto, was inspired by Stacey's approach.

The tightly cropped, overhead shots of dishes that Stacey posts on her account are appealing for several reasons. There is plenty of beautiful food photography on Instagram, but most of it looks overwrought or professionally styled.

In contrast, the plates on @frenchfamilyfood look like stills from the view through a teleidoscope pointed at a garden. Mostly salads, they have layers of texture and color, drizzles and dollops, smears and sprinkles; they are beautiful and considered but are far from perfect.

So it makes sense when Stacey tells me that some of her first jobs after studying history at Oxford were in London's art world, working with galleries and museums. That's where she internalized an appreciation for color and composition.

Visual art can be multidimensional and sensory, but it rarely involves one's sense of taste. Stacey's childhood experiences inform that dimension of her cooking and photographs. She grew up outside of Paris, and some of her earliest memories are of watching women cook. "I used to watch my grandmother in the kitchen. She lived through the Second World War in Paris, and so she wasted nothing. Everything got used.

Everything got preserved,” Stacey said. "I think about this now with my children, about how home cooking is a way to tell family history through food.”

Stacey also tells me about how, probably from the time she could eat soft, solid food as a baby, she would accompany her mother to the market. Vendors would offer Stacey a bit of ripe cheese, a fragrant raspberry, a small piece of bread, a tiny spoonful of olive oil. "The vendors do this with all the children,” Stacey explained of the culture at farmers markets in France. One is always tasting, and, from a young age, people are encouraged to experiment and develop an individual sense of taste. It's a way to introduce them to the world, "to encourage their confidence, strength, self-assurance.”

That early exposure to seasonal foods - and to the understanding that they came from a place, a region, a person who worked hard to produce them - also informs Stacey's recipes, some of which she's collecting in a cookbook set to be published next year.

Parenting is a subtle through line in her food-focused work. She started her Instagram account when her children were very young, when she was taking them to markets and cooking them the kind of food she ate as a child. It was a way of reminding herself that these formative experiences were universal. That these moments connected her family to others, in her community and around the world.

It was a cold and rainy March day when I was craving something colorful and fresh. When I closed my eyes, I pictured a salad like this one, with roasted red peppers, plump green olives, white orbs of mozzarella and bright blobs of pesto. I wanted more: baby sorrel leaves or ripe yellow cherry tomatoes or wedges of juicy purple plums. But with summer months away, I pulled jars and containers from my pantry and freezer: preserved peppers, Castelvetrano olives in an herby brine, kale and parsley pesto, my very fancy balsamic vinegar.

I channeled Stacey's aesthetic and ethos, with the adage that what grows together goes together in mind: Olives and peppers are often both preserved in the fall for use year-round. The pesto I had in my freezer was also made with autumn greens. I tucked pieces of fresh mozzarella and crusty bread between the vegetables, allowing them to soak up some of the dressing that was forming between the pepper juices, olive brine and verdant pesto oil. I offered some to my son, and, after he swallowed the first bite, he opened his mouth, baby-bird-like, for another.

"We live in this crazy whirlwind of a world,” Stacey said. "Every day, you're asking yourself 'Who am I?' 'Where am I?' just to stay in the moment. When I'm cooking for my family, I can't think about that. There's a lot of rhythm in cooking. You add oil to a vinaigrette so slowly - it's mindfulness in the moment. When I'm cooking, I'm connected back to those values of the women in my family: hardworking, honest, thoughtful, caring.”

Photo by Scott Suchman; food styling by Lisa Cherkasky/Both for The Washington Post

4 servings (makes about 6 cups, without arugula)
Total time: 20 mins

This marinated vegetable salad with sweet red peppers, white beans, olives, pesto and mozzarella takes just minutes to make. Using jarred or other prepared staples is the key to keeping this recipe speedy. To cut down on the sodium, make your own pesto and roasted red peppers. With bites of crusty baguette nestled right into it, the dish is a little like a sandwich in salad form. For a more filling meal, serve it over a pile of lettuce or other tender, leafy greens.

Make ahead: After the pesto is added to the salad, it can be covered and refrigerated for up to 1 day.
Storage: Refrigerate the salad and greens separately for up to 3 days.
Where to buy: Fresh pesto can be found in the cheese or deli aisles of well-stocked supermarkets. It almost always has a better flavor than the shelf-stable variety.

INGREDIENTS

1 (15-ounce) can cannellini beans, preferably no-salt-added, drained and rinsed
Freshly ground black pepper
4 ounces fresh mozzarella cheese, pearls or torn into bite-size pieces, divided
1 (12-ounce) jar whole or sliced, roasted red peppers, divided, liquid reserved (if using whole, cut into strips)
1/2 cup (2 ounces) pitted green olives (about 20), such as Castelvetrano or Cerignola, halved, divided, brine reserved
Fine salt
5 tablespoons pesto (see Where to buy and related recipe)
6 slices baguette (2 1/2 ounces total), cut or torn into bite-size pieces
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
5 cups (5 ounces) arugula, baby spinach or other tender, leafy greens (optional)

STEPS

In a large, shallow serving bowl, stir together the cannellini beans and a few grinds of black pepper. Stir in approximately half of the mozzarella; half of the red pepper slices, plus 2 tablespoons of their reserved liquid; and half of the olives, plus 1 tablespoon of their brine. Taste, and season with salt and more of the reserved liquid, if desired. (Save any remaining liquid for another use, such as for a salad dressing or marinade.) Scatter the remaining mozzarella, pepper slices and olives on top.

Using a small spoon, dot the salad with dollops of the pesto. (At this point, the dish can be covered and refrigerated for up to 1 day.)

Just before serving, tuck the baguette pieces deep in between the beans and vegetables. Drizzle everything with the vinegar and oil, and season with additional salt and pepper, if desired.

Serve family-style, or, if desired, plate the salad on top of arugula or other greens for a more filling meal.

Substitutions: Instead of individual servings on top of the greens >> layer them in the serving bowl or platter, then top with the bean mixture after you combine the first half of the mozzarella, red pepper slices and olives. Cannellini beans >> any other white bean, cranberry beans or lentils. Canned beans >> 1 1/2 cups home-cooked beans. Jarred roasted red peppers >> make your own or use halved cherry tomatoes. Green olives >> 1/2 cup caper berries or 1/4 cup capers, rinsed, brine reserved. Mozzarella >> halloumi, feta or firm tofu. Pesto >> 4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, 1 tablespoon grated parmesan and 1 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning.

Nutrition per serving (1 1/2 cups, not including reserved liquid from peppers or brine from olives): 415 calories, 33g carbohydrates, 32mg cholesterol, 24g fat, 5g fiber, 14g protein, 7g saturated fat, 1058mg sodium, 6g sugar

This analysis is an estimate based on available ingredients and this preparation. It should not substitute for a dietitian's or nutritionist's advice. From staff writer G. Daniela Galarza.

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