Why I toast the nuts before they go in the salad

The salad is already in the bowl — and the hand tips nuts straight from the bag “to be quicker”. Easy: they stay bland, a little soft, the smell like raw wood. I warm the nuts a minute on a dry pan — until the smell opens — I cool them, and only then I tip them into the greens.

Why I toast the nuts before they go in the salad. Spices on a dry pan before the onion is another note; walnuts in a bowl on the table is another shelf; nuts in the cupboard checked for rancid is another tip; dressing at the last minute is another branch. Here it is the nuts themselves toward the salad: a short dry heat, crunch, a warm smell — not a lecture about “omega and health”.

If they already darkened and taste bitter — I bin them, I don’t mask them in the salad. I don’t drown them in oil: only dry heat, I stir. I’m not praising a new bag from the shop display here — it’s about the ones that already lie at ours.

I don’t need nuts that cool as bland bits in the greens. I need a bowl from which a warm nut smell still rises. In your kitchen do nuts warm on a dry pan before the salad — or already tip raw from the bag?