Il Palio
One of the key ingredients in Il Palio’s kitchen is the relationship between Executive Chef Adam Rose and Chef de Cuisine Isaiah Allen. Allen’s farm, Rocky Run, supplies the Siena Hotel restaurant with an increasing variety of produce – with Rose sometimes even asking Allen to grow a particular food for a seasonal menu – providing for a very customized field-to-table relationship.
Rose looks to Rocky Run and a number of other local farms for produce to create Il Palio’s fine Italian cuisine, bringing a distinctly local flavor to classic Italian fare.
For Il Palio’s roasted beet salad, Rose’s commitment to locally sourced foods continues, as the salad is topped with goat cheese from Rougemont’s Elodie Farms.
Roasted Beet Salad
Ingredients
2 pounds red/yellow beets
2 navel oranges
1 avocado
6 ounces arugula
1 pound chickpeas, cooked and fried until crispy
4 ounces goat cheese
1 shallot
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
¼ cup white balsamic vinegar
1 cup organic canola oil
¼ cup toasted slivered almonds
salt and pepper
Method
Rub the beet skin with olive oil, salt and pepper and bake in a 350-degree oven for one hour. Let cool for 20 minutes. Peel the beets and cut them into 1-inch cubes and refrigerate.
To make the vinaigrette, combine the peeled shallot, Dijon mustard and vinegar in a blender. Zest the orange into the mixture. Blend on medium speed while slowly drizzling in the canola oil.
Peel and cut the orange into segments with a paring knife. Cut the avocado into pieces equal in size to the beet pieces.
To assemble the salad, toss the beets with the oranges, arugula, avocado and the vinaigrette. Plate in a bowl and garnish the salad with the toasted almonds, fried chickpeas and a quenelle of the goat cheese.