Lemony Rice Salad

It seems Summer in Italy is still going to stay with us at least for now. Since these days temperatures in Rome are in the 90’s (about 32°C), Romans are still going away for the weekend for their last beach getaways.This past weekend we were off to Umbria’s countryside, where my parent’s in law have a lovely country home.

My mother in law – Layla – has a beautiful vegetable garden where she grows zucchini and cherry tomatoes. Since I wanted to help her out preparing one of the meals while I was there, I decided to profit from the produce already available.

During summertime, Italians prepare mostly room temperature dishes that need no heat. This is the case of the ubiquitous “insalata di riso ” or “rice salad”.

This classic summer salad is usually made with thinly diced ingredients such as green peas, Gruyère cheese, pickles, olives, hot dogs (or frankfurters),  tomatoes, red peppers and canned tuna packed in oil.

Due to the lack of some of the above mentioned ingredients, I decided to make my own “insalata di riso”. 

This recipe is meatless and has one main ingredient – lemon.

While lemon juice is used for marinating zucchini, lemon zest is employed to add fragrance to olive oil. As a result, this rice salad has a lemony taste – a touch of freshness and tanginess that I love in salads.

Lemony Rice Salad

Ingredients

• 500 grams long grain rice parboiled (you can use whole grain instead)
• 1 cup of diced carrots
• 1 1/2 cup cherry tomatoes cut into 4 pieces.
• 1 cup of diced celery
• 1 1/4 cups of kernel corn
• 4 medium zucchini cut into round slices
• 15 diced pitted green olives
• 3/4 cup of crushed white almonds
• 1/2 cup diced chives
• 1 cup chopped parsley
• 1 basil sprig
• juice of 2 large lemons
• lemon zest of 1 lemon
• 2 garlic cloves
• extra virgin olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste

Method

A day before, add the zest of 1 lemon to 3/4 cups of olive oil. Let it stand for about 24 hours to let the olive oil absorb the citrus flavor of lemon zest.

In a bowl combine sliced zucchini with the juice of 1 lemon, sliced garlic cloves, basil, and salt. Let it marinate for about 2 hours. Discard garlic.

Cook rice under package instructions. Let it cool.

Combine all ingredients together. Add olive oil (you can discard lemon zest if you want).  Add lemon juice. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Note: This salad is best if consumed the next day, when all the flavors are well amalgamated.

Serves 8 – 10.