By Josh Resnek
Let’s start at the top.
It is a hot summer day and I am dying for a grilled sweet sausage and grilled vegetables.
You don’t have to be Italian to enjoy a good piece of sausage.
That being said, I don’t care for hot or spicy sausage. I’ve never understood eating food that causes your mouth to burn and your stomach to be set into a roar.
Sweet sausage is what I like.
The sausage shown above I bought in Revere at the end of Broadway at New Deal Fruit.
There is nothing quite like New Deal Fruit.
It is a 100% totally Italian environment with super good treats of every kind.
I didn’t buy my produce there, however.
I use Market Basket as my default go to store for nearly everything – except for sweet sausage.
Please keep in mind Market Basket’s sweet sausage is super cheap and decent but it doesn’t have the quality succulence and taste of the sweet sausage purchased at New Deal.
Obviously, this is one of the simplest plates to build.
All you need is onion – I prefer white onion.
Tomatoes – I prefer the little cherry bombs that are sweet and so so juicy and green pepper, which adds the zesty taste and colorful blast so important to such a treat as a sausage surrounded by grilled vegetables.
I prefer the vegetables to be grilled in such a way that they remain somewhat more crisp than mushy and undifferentiated.
This is one of my favorite summer plates.
It is perhaps the easiest of all plates to design.
If you haven’t enjoyed such a treat lately, then you ought to get on with it.
The second treat shown above is a modified Cobb Salad.
I had been wanting a Cobb Salad all summer.
My wife suggested I go to Panera Bread.
“They make a nice Cobb Salad,” she suggested. But I preferred to make my own.
I went to Stop and Shop.
I bought about a half inch slice of Boars Head low sodium imported ham and Boars Head Swiss Cheese.
I already had in my refrigerator cherry tomatoes, mushrooms, Italian green olives and a fresh iceberg lettuce.
What I needed to find was just the right Ranch Dressing.
I like Ranch dressing. But it has to be just right.
I bought Marzetti Classic Ranch – made with buttermilk.
Great product, tasty, solid – not watery – almost perfect when spread atop twin cuts of fresh iceberg lettuce.. Many people no longer care for iceberg lettuce. I am not among them.
This feaux Cobb salad was an absolute delight.
The Boar’s head ham and Swiss cheese are solid commercial grade products with good taste and texture.
Another really easy dish to put together.
What a doubleheader for me last weekend!