Arugula Salad with Warm Baked Goat Cheese

the Berkeley plate that taught America to eat rocket: rounds of goat cheese marinated in oil and thyme, rolled in breadcrumbs and baked until soft, set on peppery leaves in a sharp vinaigrette

Origin: California, United States

From the journey of Rocket.

Rocket had been growing in Italian-American kitchen gardens for a century before most of the United States noticed it, sold in immigrant neighbourhoods under the southern dialect name its growers had brought with them. What moved it onto the national menu was the Californian kitchen-garden cooking of the 1970s and 1980s, and specifically the decision by cooks around Chez Panisse in Berkeley to grow salad the way Nice grows it: mesclun sown as a mixture, cut young, and picked the morning it was to be served. Rocket entered American cooking as the hot component of somebody else's salad. It did not stay there. The pairing of sharp leaves with a round of warm goat's cheese became one of the most widely imitated restaurant dishes in the country, and it is a genuinely well-constructed one: the cheese is rich, soft, and lactic, the crumb coating gives it a crisp shell, and the rocket underneath supplies the bitterness and pepper that keep the whole thing from cloying. The vinaigrette has to be sharper than usual to cut the cheese, which is why this is one of the few rocket salads that takes mustard. The name is the other American inheritance. The United States says arugula where Britain says rocket because American cooks took the word from Italian-American greengrocers rather than from French or from books, and by the time the leaf reached the national menu the dialect form was fixed beyond changing.

Ingredients

Cheese

300 g firm fresh goat cheese log, chilled
120 ml extra virgin olive oil, for marinating
3 sprigs fresh thyme
1 whole bay leaf
80 g fine dry breadcrumbs, from day-old bread

Salad

200 g rocket (arugula), young leaves, washed and dried

Vinaigrette

2 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 small shallot, very finely chopped
5 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
0.5 tsp sea salt
1 pinch black pepper, freshly ground

To serve

4 slices country bread, grilled, to serve (optional)

Method

Cut the chilled goat cheese into eight rounds about two centimetres thick, using a length of dental floss or fine thread drawn through the log rather than a knife.
Lay the rounds in a dish with the thyme and bay, pour over the olive oil to cover, and leave in a cool place for at least two hours, or overnight in the refrigerator.
Heat the oven to 200°C. Lift each round from the oil, letting the excess drain off, and press it into the breadcrumbs on both sides and around the edge.
Set the rounds on a lined baking sheet and bake for six to eight minutes, until the crumbs are golden and the cheese is soft to the touch but still standing.
Whilst the cheese bakes, whisk the vinegar, mustard, shallot, salt, and pepper together, then whisk in the olive oil in a stream until thickened.
Dress the rocket lightly, divide it between four plates, set two warm cheese rounds on each, and serve at once with grilled bread.

Notes

A firm, fresh, mild goat cheese in log form is what this needs; an aged or very crumbly one will not hold together in the oven, and a soft spreadable one will collapse. The marinating oil can be strained and kept for dressing other salads, where it will taste pleasantly of thyme and cheese. Toasted walnuts, thin slices of pear or apple, and a handful of pomegranate seeds are all common additions and all work, though the original plate is plainer than any of them. Wild rocket, being hotter, stands up better to the cheese. Make the vinaigrette and marinate the cheese ahead; nothing else in the dish can be done in advance.

The Gastrographer

Name: Arugula Salad with Warm Baked Goat Cheese
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 8 min
Total time: 2 h 30 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: United States
Ingredients: 300 g firm fresh goat cheese log, chilled; 120 ml extra virgin olive oil, for marinating; 3 sprigs fresh thyme; 1 whole bay leaf; 80 g fine dry breadcrumbs, from day-old bread; 200 g rocket (arugula), young leaves, washed and dried; 2 tbsp red wine vinegar; 1 tsp Dijon mustard; 1 small shallot, very finely chopped; 5 tbsp extra virgin olive oil; 0.5 tsp sea salt; 1 pinch black pepper, freshly ground; 4 slices country bread, grilled, to serve (optional)

Mapping Culinary History

To explore — select an ingredient below.

To explore — select an ingredient below · click any location dot on the map for recipes and stories · browse the information panel on the right · trace the full journey on the timeline.

Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route

Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control