Rocket Salad with Parmesan and Spring Pea Soup

Alice Waters: The Art of Simple Food; Day 2; Recipe 2

We are beginning to see, on day two, how The   Art of Simple Food lives up to it's title.  In the recipes the ingredients are few, the process of putting them together has been, well, quite simple.  Soup and salad is not the most complicated meal to begin with, though i certainly have made bad versions of both in my time.

The rocket salad was merely arugula with a red wine vinegar and olive oil dressing, salt, pepper, and parmesan cheese.  It tasted good, but the cheese did not add what it could have.  The salad was a success, but tasted sort of regular.

Alice Waters: The Art of Simple Food; Day 2; Recipe 3

As for the soup, Paul was a hero and shucked peas from their pods while i was at work.  It was his first time performing this task and he learned what makes a good pea pod, and thus how to pick them out in the future.  The soup was just as minimal as the salad, with only peas, onions, salt, butter and water.  It tasted nice and fresh- in fact we bought all the ingredients for the entire meal this morning- but could have been a touch more rich.  It needed to step up a notch.  Fresh spring pea soup was a success, but i'd try a different recipe next time.