I went shopping along Main St. and came home with blueberries (two baskets for $3!) as well as a big wad of crumbly Gorgonzola ($5). Inspired by the superb salad, ‘Salad with Bleu de Bresse Cheese and Grilled Walnuts’ in my Rhone Valley Cooking Class, I put together this variation of a summer salad.

This ‘blue’ salad consists of spinach, toasted walnuts (but you can use pecans), sunflower seeds, blueberries, celery and crumbled blue cheese, in this case a crumbly Gorgonzola. I cheated a bit with the dressing; it was a raspberry & white balsamic vinaigrette from President’s Choice, but it went perfectly.

In my French cooking class we would have plated this salad by artfully arranging two Belgian endive leaves, then adding the tossed salad topped by a small amount of crumbled blue cheese (set aside earlier) and chopped chives.

This is great either as a side salad for grilled steak, or as a meal itself with some crusty bread and butter, and perhaps a coarse paté. Al decided it would be perfect to take to the next summer potluck BBQ and it was very popular!