This is not truly a salad. Use those silly air-quotes – it’s a Caesar “Salad”.

My dear friend and neighbor is under treatment for stomach cancer and headed for a full recovery. I’m doing my best to keep up with her changing but remarkably good appetite to provide nourishing, healing food. As you might guess about me, when I am stressed and worried about someone I love this is how I go to ground – I cook.

Under strict doctor’s orders, the only raw food Sally can have are thick-skinned fruits and vegetables. Just as when you are told not to “think about elephants” or “don’t think about where in your mouth your tongue is”, that thing becomes an obsession. I’ve been grilling asparagus and our new favorite grilled tomatoes to come as close as we can to raw while still reaching bacteria killing temperatures. Last night I came up with a real winner to go with turkey mushroom barley soup (for what will probably be our last Southern California winter stormy night).

Inspired by the grilled bread with Swiss chard and burrata cheese served at the Hollywood power lunch spot Ammo and a recipe for fried bread with broccoli and Romano from the New York Times this week, I give you Caesar Crossing the Alps, a cooked salad.