I think it's fairly obvious, visually at least, that this salad is a take on the Vietnamese dish Bun Vermicelli. You guys may have noticed that I have been pretty obsessed with that dish as of late, and I try and recreate it any way I can think of. This most recent riff on the dish swaps out some of the traditional ingredients with stuff more commonly associated with Italian cooking. It came out great, with just enough flavors retained from the original dish to meld perfectly with the new one.
I swapped out the various grilled meats like shrimp, chicken, or steak, with some Italian sausage. Replaced peanuts with walnuts. Changed iceburg for romaine. Instead of just mint, I used mint and basil. Tomato and mozzarella replace bean sprouts and tofu. Finally, I pickled my carrots in red wine vinegar instead of rice wine vinegar. The dressing is the pickling liquid mixed with olive oil.
I assembled the salad the way I like bun, all the ingredients have their place around the noodles.
Pour on the dressing right before eating. Yummy stuff!
For the carrots - peel and julienne. Place in a jar. Heat red wine vinegar with some salt, pepper, sugar, and grated garlic. Pour the boiling vinegar over the carrots. Allow to sit 1 hour. Strain. Reserve liquid. Mix the carrots with julienned cucumbers. Mix the liquid with olive oil and use as dressing.
Cook the noodles to the package instructions. Everything else is self explanatory.
Yummy! Might have to be lunch for today =)
As a Vietnamese chick who's really into Italians, I totally approve of this mixture. I love Bun!!
I have a suggestion for you since you seem really into the noodles lately: Bibim Naengmyun. It's korean, it's amazing, it's delicious, try it, & put a spin on it. I have pictures of it on my site because I was obsessed with it for a while, but I'd love to see if you could spin it into something super creative.
Italian Cuisine is my favorite ;) Thanks for idea