Apple, sage and goat cheese salad

T. brought this  warm apples, nuts, sage, goat cheese and autumn leaves salad last time she came home for dinner. “Did you know Mafalda Pinto Leite?”, she asked, while she took over the kitchen and put the salad together. “Mafalda who?” I answered. Clearly,  I was missing out on something.  The recipe is from the book Cozinha Para Quem Não Tem Tempo (in a very liberal translation from the Portuguese, Cooking for Those Who Have No Time)

Apple, sage and goat cheese salad 

Ingredients (4 persons)

• 60g butter without salt
• 1 tablespoon of sage leafs (no chopping needed).
• 3 tablespoons of white vinegar (I used cherry vinegar)
• 1 tablespoon of brown sugar (cane sugar will also work fine)
• 2 green apples without core and cut in quarters.
• Half  mug of chopped nuts
• 100g de rucola or red spinach (I used a bag of autumn leaves)
• 150g of sliced goat cheese (the creamy one)

Method

Put the butter, sage, vinegar and sugar in a frying pan (low heat). When the butter has melted, add the nuts and the apples and. Let cook for a few minutes or until the fruit is tender.

Make a bed of leafs in the dishes, and place the apples and the nuts on top. Reserve the juice that was left on the pan, and poor it over the nuts and apples. Finish with the sliced goat cheese.

Total time of cooking: 8 minutes-ish. Looking for the right ingredients in the cupboard: one eternity.