Who knows ricotta salata?  If not, you probably know ricotta.  It’s the spreadable white Italian cheese stuffed in pasta shells and ravioli and, when mixed with sugar, cannoli shells.  It’s mild enough to be put to a variety of uses.

Ricotta salata is its overworked, salty cousin who’s been around the block.  Ricotta is put under pressure, salted, and dried, and the result is an inexpensive, semi-hard cheese a bit firmer than feta and with a pleasant saltiness and maybe a hint of tang.  I think it’s great for snacking, but it’s also a fantastic ingredient in any kind of simple, clean-tasting dinner.  And thus the resulting recipe, a suuuuuper easy and uncluttered sandwich in which each ingredient stands out and is given room to breathe and be enjoyed on its own.

Quick ‘n Clean Ricotta Salata & Arugula Sandwich

• Quality, crusty bread (this is key; weak-ass stuff from the Wonderbread aisle will sink anything)
• Arugula
• Capers
• 1/4 of one lemon
• ricotta salata
• olive oil

Toast the bread, then layer on the arugula and capers and squirt the lemon over top.  Put thick slabs of the cheese on next, as it serves to hold the capers into the sandwich, and then drizzle the olive oil on last before pressing down the top piece of bread.  Boom.  This is sooo good and fills you up without being heavy in your gut.  It’s also easy enough to do in the wintertime, despite the fact that the arugula is out of season.