Dressing with a Twist

Shortly before Turkey Day, I ran across Mark Bittman's take on a simple, crunchy dressing. One that's cooked outside of the bird, without eggs or stock. A light bready side accompaniment that turned out to be the prize winner of the assortment of food platters presented.

We've decided this is a must for the repertoire as it could easily be used with other animal offerings, how about as a side with pork chops?

But it will be a big hit with vegetarians as a great alternative filling for stuffed peppers, stuffed zucchini, perhaps wrapped in grape or cabbage leaves? Or as an interesting crunchy side with steamed veggies.

The easy instructions lend themselves nicely to alternative renditions. Changing the nuts, using different herbs, including other additions. I added sliced chestnuts to our Thanksgiving version. Dried cherries or even bits of dried apricots would be a lovely alternative with perhaps toasted hazelnuts in place of the walnuts.

I've noticed that the simple, yet very flavorful preparations that Mark Bittman offers, lend themselves very nicely to experimenting with variations or to using what's on hand.

Here's the New York Times video presentation of Mark making this tasty dressing:

http://video.on.nytimes.com/?fr_story=8c6651319434f112dd72115973275b55f3125309

I used multi-grain, many seeded baguettes from Whole Foods Bakery along with sliced chestnuts, walnuts and the recommended tarragon. We've been eating the leftovers with a little gravy for breakfast, lunch and snacks. Two baguettes makes a lot of dressing!

Add this one to your files. It's a keeper!