Arugula: Beyond the Salad Bowl

While my backyard Brooklyn garden has experienced a bit of an, er, rough patch this year thanks to a ridiculous surplus of rain, the one vegetable seemingly unaffected is the arugula. It is running rampant. So rampant that I’ve started to have to come up with other ways to use it besides salads and gifting it to friends. Here, five of my current favorite ways to arugula beyond the salad bowl. FIORELLA V.

On top of leftover pizza.

A tangle of crisp arugula atop a reheated cheese pizza breathes new life into the most forlorn slices.

Add new flavor to homemade mayo

After making your preferred mayo recipe blend it in a food processor with arugula. Great with a turkey sandwich.

Make it into pesto

Just swap out pine nuts for pistachios. Serve it with pasta or smear it onto bruschetta with mozzarella or goat cheese.

Try it in a quiche

Where it calls for spinach, try arugula instead. I made a lovely version with arugula, pancetta and gruyere.

Brighten up a heavy pasta

Carbonara purists should stop reading now. When I’m craving the so-called “bacon and egg” pasta in the throes of summer, I like to add a handful of arugula at the end to lighten it up a bit.