Rucola Salad with Goat Cheese, Honey Dressing and Pink Peppercorns

Here's the salad which accompanied yesterday's salmon with spice crust, rucola with goat cream cheese, crushed pink  peppercorns and a sweet honey Balsamico vinegar dressing! I wanted to use both the pink and the green peppercorns which I had just bought at the market, not in the same dish but in the same meal. The spiciness of the green pepper fit perfectly with the crust I chose for the fish but my salad, sweet and milky, needed a mild and less spicy aroma, pink peppercorns. The berries matched the sourness of the creamy cheese very well which was so young that there was only a hint of goat milk. I could have used mozzarella instead but I wanted  this special, slightly sharp aroma which balanced out the sweetness of my vinaigrette on the other side.

Usually, I make a quick dressing for my salads, 3 tablespoons of olive and 2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar plus salt and pepper, but this salad asked for more. I kept the ratio of vinegar and oil but I mixed my dark balsamic vinegar with the white one and added 1 small teaspoon of honey (depending on the sweetness you want to achieve you might need more or less honey). It turned out thick, sticky and syrupy, exactly what I wanted! For 2 I spread 2 handfuls of rucola leaves on plates and sprinkled 125g / 4.5 ounces of fresh goat cream cheese in big lumps on top. I drizzled the dressing over the  leaves and garnished my salad with 1 tablespoon of crushed pink peppercorns. It would have made us just as happy as a light and easy lunch on its own. I have to remember that, it will be perfect on a hot summer evening!