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Classic Mediterranean Salads, Free of Greens

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I knew better than to judge Greek food by what I’d eaten in Greek-American restaurants. But I guess I did because, about 10 years ago, a hiking trip in the Cycladic Islands was a revelation.

That introduction to the vibrant flavors of regional Greek cooking started with the iconic Greek salad. Juicy tomatoes, cucumbers, green pepper, onion: similar to what we call Greek  salad in the U.S. but with some crucial differences,

  1. None of the shredded lettuce  that often shows up here. In fact, no greens at all. (Perfect for a time when cyclospora and other foodborne illnesses are making news in the U.S.)
  2. Vegetables are cut in big chunks, to be addressed with knife and fork. Feta, rather than being crumbled, is presented in slices.
  3. Salads are lightly dressed with good Greek olive oil, a few pinches of salt and perhaps a little lemon juice or wine vinegar–a chance from the vinegary, overly sweet or creamy dressings served in many Greek-American places.

Almost every meal included a salad along these lines. But there were small differences. One taverna’s salad was seasoned with dried oregano, while another’s sprinkled on fresh dill or piquant capers. On the island of Naxos, a restaurant put potatoes in its salad, an addition I loved.

Greek Salad
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Greek Salad with Potato
Prep Time
20 mins
Cook Time
15 mins
Total Time
35 mins
 

I ate a variation of this salad almost every day during a hiking trip to the Cycladic Islands.

Servings: 4
Author: Toni Lydecker
Ingredients
  • 1 large potato, peeled
  • 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
  • 1 large tomato
  • 1 medium cucumber
  • 1 small green pepper, cored and seeded
  • several red onion slices
  • 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
  • Juice of 1 small lemon
  • sea salt
  • freshly ground black pepper
  • 1/2 cup kalamata or other Greek olives
  • 1/4 cup chopped fresh dill or several pinches dried oregano
  • 2 to 4 ounces feta in a block
Instructions

  1. Cut potato in large chunks. Place in a small saucepan, cover with water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until just tender. Drain, return to pan and sprinkle with vinegar. Cool.

  2. Cut tomato, cucumber and green pepper in large chunks. Combine in a large bowl with potato and onion slices. Add olive oil. Toss gently. Add lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste. Toss again.

  3. Pile the salad on a platter. Sprinkle olives and dill over it. Cut feta in large slices and lay on top.


Tuscany has long been familiar ground to me but I remember my long-ago surprise on first tasting panzanella, the region’s famous bread salad. Lina Romei, a Tuscan cook through and through, showed me how to soak salt-free Tuscan bread, squeeze it dry and feather into a bowl. Onions were diced fine, basil leaves torn, and the whole anointed with good oil and vinegar. No tomatoes, cucumber or capers in Lina’s panzanella because they are not traditional.

But I’m not Tuscan–more to the point, real Tuscan bread can’t be found in this country. Instead, I oven dry croutons from the best wholewheat or white loaf I can find. Unlike Lina, I do add tomatoes, cucumbers and canned tuna to my panzanella.

And absolutely no greens in authentic Tuscan panzanella or in mine.

bread salad
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Panzanella

This version of a classic Tuscan salad brings in tomatoes, cucumbers and tuna as well as the essential ingredients: bread, olive oil, vinegar and fresh basil.

Servings: 3 or 4 servings
Author: Toni Lydecker
Ingredients
  • 1/2 cup chopped red onion
  • 3 to 4 cups 1/2-inch cubes from a firm-textured whole-grain or white loaf
  • Extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
  • 1 ripe tomato, diced small
  • 1/2 cucumber, peeled and seeded, diced small
  • Leaves from 1 sprig basil
  • Sea salt or kosher salt
  • Freshly ground black pepper optional
  • 1 (6- to 7-ounce) can good-quality tuna packed in olive oil, drained
Instructions

  1. Place onion in a small bowl and cover with water. Let stand at least 15 minutes. Drain.

  2. Scatter bread cubes in a single layer over a shallow sheet pan or toaster oven pan. Set oven or toaster oven to 300F and heat bread until dry to the touch, 20 to 30 minutes. Taste for crispness.

  3. Place bread in a medium bowl and add 1/4 cup olive oil and vinegar. Mix gently before adding onion, tomato and cucumber. Break up tuna between your fingers. Snip basil leaves into ribbons, letting them fall into the bowl. Gently mix ingredients. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

  4. Allow flavors to blend by letting panzanella stand at room temperature for an hour or, refrigerated, for several hours.

  5. To serve: Spoon salad onto plates. Pass more olive oil for diners to add if they please.

Smoked Seafood Salads

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In my dreams, a proper pantry is a closet or a shelf-lined room. In my actual condo kitchen, a cupboard serves this purpose–so I’m picky about the staples stored there.

Among the grains, beans, nuts, dried fruit and canned tomatoes, you’ll  always find a stack of canned and jarred seafood: tuna, sardines, mussels, mackerel, clams, ready for a quick, healthy lunch or snack.

Lately I’ve been noticing that markets are devoting more space to preserved seafood–and quite a few are smoked seafood products.

One day recently a can of smoked mussels found its way to some big, luscious Corona beans I’d simmered the day before. A few additions–bell pepper, parsley, olive oil and seasonings–and our lunch salad was ready to eat (see lead photo).

Smoked mackerel turns any salad into a dish you might find in Sicily. This one combines the smoked fish with greens, potatoes and red onion in a garlicky dressing.

Sardines are packed plain in water or olive oil, but I’ve also found smokey sardines, sometimes in a mustardy sauce or one spiked with piri piri. They’re hard to beat when arrayed on a plate, pampered with chopped vegetables and micro greens, looking pretty.

Tinned seafood has had a bit of a heyday in restaurants, and this sardine salad is not too different from one I ordered as an appetizer in Manhattan.

I’ve written up recipes for the three salads but you could wing it and likely do just as well. Supermarket olive bars and Italian delis are especially good sources of pickled things–such as peppadews, olives, artichoke hearts and the like–that enliven a smoked seafood salad.

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Corona Bean and Smoked Mussel Salad

Crunchy garnishes are just what this luscious bean and smoked mussel salad needs.

Course: Lunch, Main Dish
Servings: 2 servings
Author: Toni Lydecker
Ingredients
  • 2 cups cooked Corona or gigande beans, or any white beans*
  • 1 can (4-5 ounces) smoked mussels, drained
  • ½ red or orange bell pepper or piquillo pepper, cut in slivers
  • 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
  • 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
  • sea salt, to taste
  • cracked red pepper flakes, to taste
  • chopped parsley
Instructions

  1. Combine beans, mussels and bell pepper in a medium bowl.

  2. Drizzle ingredients with olive oil and lemon juice. Season with salt and red pepper, mix gently and taste; add more dressing ingredients if needed.

  3. Spoon salad onto 2 plates. Sprinkle with parsley.
Recipe Notes

*Corona beans are an enormous variety with a creamy texture, similar to Greek gigande beans.

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Smoked Mackerel and Potato Salad

One secret to success: Turn potatoes in the garlicky dressing while they're still warm.

Course: Lunch, Main Dish
Cuisine: Sicily
Servings: 2 servings
Author: Toni Lydecker
Ingredients
  • 1 large or 2 small boiling potatoes, peeled or not
  • Sea salt or kosher salt
  • ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
  • 1 small garlic clove, chopped or pressed
  • Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
  • Several thin red onion slices, soaked in water, drained
  • 2 peppadew peppers cut in medium pieces
  • 2 teaspoons capers optional
  • 3 cups torn Boston lettuce or other salad greens
  • 1 tin (7 ounces) smoked mackerel or haddock, drained
Instructions
  1. Place potatoes in a small saucepan and cover with water. Add a tablespoon of salt, bring to a boil and simmer until tender but not mushy. Drain.
  2. Meanwhile, combine olive oil and vinegar with garlic, salt (about ½ teaspoon) and pepper in a small jar. Shake well. Spoon half the dressing over warm drained potatoes and gently mix.
  3. In another bowl, mix lettuce with remaining dressing.

  4. To serve: Divide lettuce between 2 plates. Distribute potatoes, peppadews, onion and capers (if using) over lettuce. Arrange mackerel filets on top.

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Smoked Sardine Salad

Sardines are delicious on their own, but why not dress them up a little?

Course: Lunch, Salad
Servings: 1 serving
Author: Toni Lydecker
Ingredients
  • 1 can (about 4 ounces) smoked sardines or unseasoned sardines, drained
  • ½ carrot, cut in tiny dice
  • 1 large radish, cut in tiny dice
  • 1 slice fennel, cut in tiny dice
  • 2 teaspoons capers or a few small olives, optional
  • 1 small handful microgreens
  • Extra virgin olive oil
  • sea salt
  • freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 lemon wedge
Instructions

  1. Arrange sardines on a plate. Scatter carrot, radish, fennel and capers (if using) on top. Drizzle with a little olive oil. Season lightly with salt and pepper.

  2. Serve with lemon wedge and wholegrain crackers.

Quinoa Salads with European Flair

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Quinoa salad: not the kind of food most of us travel to Europe for. But I ate it twice on a recent trip, once as an appetizer in a Bilbao hotel restaurant and then as an outdoor lunch in Provence.

Both times, I was struck by how appetizing a quinoa salad can be. Maybe because I have a lingering sense of this super grain as a virtuous but not necessarily delectable food.

Quinoa is actually a seed, but in most dishes it serves as a grain, with a well-deserved nutritional reputation. Quinoa even outshines other whole grains like brown rice, with more protein and fiber per serving. It’s packed with vitamins and antioxidants. It’s a carb, yes, but gluten free.

Plus, it’s just fun to look at. As they cook, the tiny grains explode into a mass of frothy squiggles.

I was eating for pleasure and none of that was top of mind–but, to my delight, there was nothing drab about the European quinoa salads I ate.

They enticed with the bright flavors of summer vegetables, sumptuous cheeses and surprising touches like fresh corn kernels, honeydew melon and raisins.

Back home, I was motivated to make quinoa salads with the same attention to balance and sensory appeal.

The first recipe has the roasted peppers, mozzarella, Genoa salami and olives I often include in an Italian rice salad.

I loved the crunch of fresh corn, sweetness of honeydew and raisins, and the tang of goat cheese in the Spanish quinoa salad.

Both salads benefit from fresh herbs and a lovely lemon vinaigrette with a hint of honey, countering the slight bitterness of quinoa.

These recipes make enough for a crowd, served as a side for a cookout. They keep beautifully in the fridge for a couple of days, on hand for a dinner, lunch or snack.

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Quinoa Salad with Roasted Peppers and Mozzarella

This recipe has everything I'm looking for in a grain salad: Celery contributes crunch, mozzarella lends luscious flavor, olives add a piquant touch. Makes 6 to 8 servings.

Course: Appetizer, Piatto Unico (one-dish meal)
Author: Toni Lydecker
Ingredients
Dressing
  • 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
  • 2 to 3 tablespoons lemon juice
  • 1 tablespoon honey or agave syrup
  • 1 teaspoon white wine vinegar optional
  • 1 teaspoon coarse sea salt or kosher salt or to taste
  • 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Salad
  • 1 ½ cups quinoa
  • 1/2 cup frozen edamame
  • 1 red or yellow bell pepper roasted and cut in short strips
  • 2 to 4 ounces Genoa salami slices cut in strips, optional
  • 1 celery rib cut crosswise in small pieces
  • 8 to 12 grape tomatoes halved
  • 1/3 cup kalamata or oil-cured black olives pitted and halved
  • ½ cup torn or roughly chopped flat-leaf parsley leaves
  • 6 ounces fresh mozzarella cut in medium cubes
Instructions

  1. Dressing: Combine olive oil, lemon juice, honey, vinegar, sea salt and black pepper in a small jar. Shake well. Taste and adjust seasoning.

    Salad: Bring 3 cups water in a medium saucepan to a boil. Add quinoa, stirring gently, and reduce heat to low. Cook, partly covered, until most liquid has been absorbed and quinoa is tender. 

    Remove from heat, cover and let rest for 5 to 10 minutes; fluff grains with a fork. 

    Transfer warm quinoa to serving bowl. Add warm dressing, gently mixing in. Fold in frozen edamame. Once mixture has cooled, mix in roasted pepper, salami (if using), celery, grape tomatoes, olives and parsley. Fold in cheese.

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Quinoa Salad, Bilbao Style

This salad is like a treasure hunt. Discovering honeydew melon, fresh corn and raisins in its depths is just plain fun.

Makes 6 to 8 servings.

Course: Appetizer, Main Dish
Author: Toni Lydecker
Ingredients
  • Dressing
  • 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
  • 2 to 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
  • 1 tablespoon honey or agave syrup
  • 1 teaspoon coarse sea salt or kosher salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon paprika preferably Spanish
  • Salad
  • 1 ½ cups quinoa rinsed
  • ½ cup fresh or frozen corn kernels
  • ½ cup honeydew or other melon cut in small cubes
  • ¼ cup golden raisins
  • ¼ cup slivered almonds lightly toasted
  • 6 ounces fresh or semi-aged goat cheese crumbled or cubed
  • Mint and/or basil leaves cut in ribbons
Instructions
  1. Dressing

  2. Combine olive oil, lemon juice, honey, salt and paprika in a small jar. Shake well. Taste and adjust seasoning.

  3. Salad

  4. Bring 3 cups water in a medium saucepan to a boil. Add quinoa, stirring gently, and reduce heat to low. Cook, partly covered, until most liquid has been absorbed and quinoa is tender.

  5. Remove from heat, cover and let rest for 5 to 10 minutes; fluff grains with a fork.

  6. Transfer warm quinoa to a large serving bowl. Add dressing, gently mixing in. Once mixture has cooled, add corn, honeydew, raisins and almonds.
  7. Distribute goat cheese over salad. Garnish with herb leaves.

Salade Niçoise, Two Ways

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If you’ve been cooking as long as I have, you might remember the salade niçoise of the 1980s, which had a bit of a heyday on restaurant and home menus.

Artfully arranged heaps of dressed green beans, potatoes and maybe beets, with a piece of seared rare tuna at the center of the plate, amounted to a dish of note. You strewed olives and capers over all and, if you dared, a few anchovies.

I made this salad back then, usually for a dinner party, and it was delicious. But it always seemed like a project, dressing each vegetable separately and searing or grilling the tuna. Unless you put it all on a platter, the composition had to be repeated for each plate. Over time, I drifted away from that salade niçoise.

When I visited Nice for the first time last June, I was of course eager to try the city’s namesake salad–and what I found was that it bore little resemblance to the composed salad I remembered.

Of the versions I saw or tried, one of the most appealing was in Vieux Nice, the old medieval quarter. A bowlful of casually assembled greens, tuna, anchovy, tomato, celery and egg halves arrived, to be dressed as I pleased.

 

I realized that I regularly make something similar to this salad, often for a solo lunch–never thinking of it as salade niçoise. This salad seemed familiar, like one I might encounter in nearby Liguria or in Sicily.

Elsewhere in Nice, salade niçoise was reliably delicious, proteinaceous, easy. And made with canned tuna, always.

But it occurred to me that there might be a place for the potatoes and green beans I remembered from the fancier salad niçoise. Julia Child was a fan and made the point, in her 1989 book The Way to Cook, that Escoffier included those vegetables in his description. That esteemed culinary authority was after all, born near Nice, so he knew what he was talking about.

It’s true, potatoes and green beans with a garlicky dressing are hard to resist. Plus, a composed salad is showier. So, in addition to the dress-it-yourself salad, I offer a layered salade niçoise with potatoes and green beans. There’s room in the world of Provençal salads for two delicious alternatives.

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Salade Niçoise
Prep Time
10 mins
 
This delightful main-course salad from Nice can be assembled in 10 minutes or so.
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: French
Servings: 2 servings
Author: Toni Lydecker
Ingredients
  • 4 cups Boston lettuce, torn or mixed greens
  • 1 jar or can good-quality tuna (about 7 ounces) such as Tonnino Ventresca, drained
  • 1 rib celery cut in thin angled slices
  • Leaves from 1 basil sprig whole if small or torn in pieces
  • 2 teaspoons capers
  • 1 large ripe tomato cut in wedges
  • 2 hard-cooked eggs halved
  • 2 to 6 anchovies your choice
  • Best-quality olive oil in a cruet
  • White wine vinegar in a cruet
  • Sea salt
  • Black pepper in a grinder
Instructions
  1. Divide lettuce, tuna pieces, celery, basil and capers between two dinner plates. Arrange tomato, eggs and anchovies on top.
  2. Serve with olive oil, wine vinegar, salt and pepper for dressing.
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Salade Niçoise with Potatoes and Green Beans
Prep Time
20 mins
Cook Time
20 mins
 

Potatoes and green beans in salade niçoise? I never encountered such a version during my visit to Nice itself. But it is nonetheless delicious.

Course: Main Course
Cuisine: French
Servings: 4 servings
Author: Toni Lydecker
Ingredients
For the dressing
  • 1/3 cup best-quality olive oil
  • 1 to 2 tablespoons red or white wine vinegar
  • 1 garlic clove pressed or finely chopped
  • 1 teaspoon mustard
  • Sea salt to taste
  • Freshly ground black pepper to taste
For the salad
  • 2 medium red-skinned potatoes or other boiling potatoes
  • 8 ounces green beans tipped and snapped in half
  • 1 small head Boston lettuce torn, or 1 box (5 ounces) mixed greens
  • 2 ribs celery angle cut in thin slices
  • 2 large ripe tomatoes halved and cut in slices
  • 2 jars or cans good-quality tuna (6.5-7 ounces) such as Tonnino Ventresca, drained
  • 4 hard-cooked eggs halved
  • 4 to 8 anchovies pinched in half
  • 1 heaping tablespoon capers
Instructions
  1. For dressing: Combine olive oil, wine vinegar, garlic, mustard, salt and pepper in a small jar. Close and shake well. Taste, adjust seasonings and shake again.
  2. Cut potatoes in small dice (1/2 inch) Break or cut green beans in half. Bring a medium saucepan of salted water to a boil. Add potato and cook until just beginning to turn tender. Add green beans and cook until both vegetables are tender; drain. Cool until warm and mix in 2 tablespoons dressing.
  3. Toss greens and celery with remaining dressing. Arrange on dinner plates. Ring with tomato slices. Spoon green bean/potato mixture over greens. Gently break apart tuna and layer on top. Garnish with eggs, anchovies and capers.

The Muffuletta: From Sicily by Way of New Orleans

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muffaletta

 

I won’t be in New Orleans for Mardi Gras, but I’m thinking of all the gumbo, jambalaya, crawfish étouffée, king cakes, Sazeracs and Vieux Carres that go down in our most food-centric city. Accompanied by jazz and enthusiastic crowds.

New Orleans is famous for its muffulettas, too, and Fat Tuesday is as good a day as any to enjoy one of these over-the-top sandwiches. They were supposedly “invented” by a local deli owner more than a century ago. He was a Sicilian immigrant, so it’s not surprising that the muffuletta is rooted firmly in that region’s cuisine. The components are the same as a mixed antipasto–cured meats, cheese, olives, bread–and, as the story goes, putting them all together resulted in a speedy lunch for hard-pressed workers.

In Sicily the word muffuletta (also known as muffaletta) refers to a kind of sesame-topped bread. The delicious olive salad that distinguishes the American muffuletta from other sandwiches is reminiscent of the tasty Castelvetrano olives and olive-heavy dishes such as caponata for which Sicily is known.

The American muffuletta consists of several kinds of Italian deli meats–for example, prosciutto, mortadella, capacollo and Genoa salami–layered with sliced provolone or mozzarella, generous quantities of olive salad and lettuce. The olive salad is flexible, depending on what you like. I prefer a salad that is mostly olives, mixed with fresh celery and piquant pickled things like peppadews, peperoncini and pickled garlic.

muffuletta olive salad

Eat the muffuletta as is, at room temperature or warmed. Or, heat up some minestrone  for a soup-and-sandwich combo.

One of my favorite variations on the meaty muffuletta is a tuna version that, as a partner for the olive salad, is very typical of Sicilian ways with a sandwich.

tuna muffaletta

muffaletta
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Muffuletta Sandwiches
Prep Time
25 mins
 

These over-the-top sandwiches come to us from Sicily, by way of New Orleans. They are loaded with deli meats, cheeses and olive salad.

Course: Dinner, Lunch, Snack
Cuisine: American, Sicily
Servings: 4 sandwiches
Ingredients
  • 1 cup Mediterranean black or green olives, or a mix pitted and chopped
  • 1 stalk celery diced small
  • ¼ cup firmly packed chopped peppadews or jarred sweet pickled peppers available at supermarket olive bars
  • ¼ cup firmly packed chopped pepperoncini or other hot pickled peppers
  • 3 jarred pickled garlic cloves or 1 garlic clove chopped (optional)
  • 1 tablespoon well-drained capers
  • ½ teaspoon oregano
  • 4 muffuletta, Kaiser or other round sandwich rolls split
  • Extra virgin olive oil as needed
  • 8 ounces thin-sliced deli meats such as ham, prosciutto, mortadella, capacollo and/or salami choose at least two
  • 8 ounces provolone or mozzarella cheese
  • Baby arugula or shredded lettuce
Instructions

  1. Make olive salad: Combine olives, celery, peppadews, pepperoncini, pickled garlic cloves, capers and oregano in a medium bowl. Stir well.

  2. Prepare bread: Pull out soft interior of rolls and save to make bread crumbs.

  3. Make sandwiches: Drizzle cut sides of rolls with olive oil. Spoon olive salad into hollows created by removing bread. Layer deli meats, one slice at a time, on bottom halves. Top with cheese and arugula. Close sandwiches.

  4. To serve: Serve immediately or wrap and serve in a few hours. If you prefer warm sandwiches, wrap in foil and heat briefly in an oven or toaster oven.
Recipe Notes

Tuna Muffulettas: Substitute two cans or jars (10-13 ounces total) good-quality tuna for deli meats and cheese. If tuna is packed in olive oil, use to drizzle sandwich rolls. 

Antipasto Platters and Other Simple Tuscan Dishes

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In Tuscany, it’s easy to be a lazy cook and still eat well.

Usually when I arrive here, in the Valdarno area south of Florence, I start cooking furiously. But the weather has been hot and this time I’m opting for more reading, more naps, more outings. So my emphasis has shifted to shopping for dinner instead of laboring over it.

What we’re eating these days is likely to be a simple antipasto platter, pasta with a quick sauce or an all-in-one like beans with chard and tomatoes (I’ll tell later how to make that one).

The region’s fabulous semi-aged pecorino cheeses need only be sliced. Buffalo mozzarella might be from Campania, as expected, but now I’m enjoying luscious mozzarella from the coastal Maremma area, which also raises water buffalo.

 

Soft, fennel-flavored finocchiona is Tuscany’s pride, and the region’s peppery prosciutto vies with better-known cured hams from the north. Rigotino looks like bacon, but it’s cured and can be eaten as is or used in cooking. Delicately seasoned lardo di Colonnata is delectable on crostini.

Marinated olives, artichoke hearts and cipolline onions, grilled eggplant and zucchini—all are on display at the supermarket gastronomia, a deli counter but so much more. I’m a stickler for making my own pesto. Well, except I’m not doing that here. Freshly made pesto scooped out of a gastronomia tub tastes darned close to what I make myself.

For other foods, supermarkets and neighborhood shops make life easier by doing some prep. Spinach and chard are cooked and squeezed into balls that need only be reheated gently and seasoned. Long-simmered beans are available and so is a small container of odori (onion, carrots, celery, parsley) for making broth or soffritto for a sauce base.

At the fruttivendolo in nearby Bucine, the owner pointed me to flatbreads for quick pizzas. with pancetta precut in small cubes, leftover roasted veggies and grated cheese. Couldn’t have tasted better.

Fresh tomatoes are still in season and they are a component of pappa al pomodoro, thickened with stale Tuscan bread, on offer at the same vendor. It looked gelatinous and unappealing, but she coaxed me to buy some: “Add a little olive oil and water to the pan, then stir in the pappa and heat it up.” She was right—we loved it.

Nectarines and figs were delicious when we arrived in early September but now my interest has shifted to fragrant pears, grapes and yellow canary and striped French-style melons. The pomegranates I saw ripening on trees a few weeks ago are now in markets.

From a garden tree, we also tasted giugiolle (jujubes), small brown fruit that taste like apples. According to Italian web sources, they can be used in risotto and sausage dishes as well as sweets. So far all I’ve done is nibble them.

If you’re still reading, do you remember those white beans with chard and tomatoes? I could have put prepped ingredients together in cucina rapida fashion. As it happens, though, our hosts had given me a pound of dried white cannellini. And, in their garden, we’ve been cutting a full-flavored variety of bietola (chard) and picking the last of their heirloom tomatoes.

Despite my lazy, cheating ways, I made this bean dish from scratch. It wasn’t hard and I hope you’ll do it, too.

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White Beans with Chard and Tomatoes
Prep Time
30 mins
Cook Time
1 hr
Total Time
1 hr 30 mins
 

This barely makes the cut for a dish that deserves a recipe. It's simple but won't be special unless the details are right. The only indispensable ingredient is dried beans. As is often the way in Italy, they could be served plain, with diners invited to season with olive oil, salt and pepper as they wish. The photo shows beans mixed with chard, diced tomatoes and an optional sprinkle of chopped onion. But you could just as well mix in slices of cooked sausage and chopped parsley instead.

Course: Main Dish
Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients
  • 1 pound good-quality cannellini or other white beans
  • 2 bay leaves or a sprig of fresh sage
  • 1 onion quartered through the root end
  • 1 small bunch chard tough ends removed
  • Sea salt or kosher salt
  • Freshly ground black pepper
  • 2 large tomatoes diced small
  • Extra virgin olive oil
  • Chopped sweet onion optional
Instructions
  1. Place beans in a large saucepan and cover with cold water. Soak for 6 hours or as directed on package. Drain and wash well under cold water.
  2. Return beans to saucepan and cover with cold water to a depth of a couple of inches above beans. Add bay leaves and onion, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer gently, partly covered, about 1 hour or until tender.

  3. Meanwhile, cut chard crosswise (including stems) in thin strips. Bring a medium saucepan, filled two thirds with water and a small handful of salt, to a boil. Add chard, cooking just until tender, about 5 minutes. Drain.

  4. Remove bay leaves and onion from beans. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
  5. To serve: Spoon beans into shallow bowls. Top with tomatoes and chard. Drizzle generously with olive oil. Pass additional olive oil, salt and pepper, and chopped onion (if using) at the table.

Curing the Salad Blahs

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When I was growing up, my mom often asked me to make salad for our family dinner. Invariably, it was iceberg lettuce or romaine, tomatoes and maybe one other thing, such as cucumbers. Usually I tossed it with an orangish Wishbone dressing.

Hey, it was the 50s. That’s how we rolled. Our supermarket’s selection of ingredients was limited and in the part of Texas where we lived, making an Italian-style dressing with extra virgin olive oil was as yet unheard of.

I was bored with that salad even then and I’m sure my mother was, too (which might have been why she assigned the task to me).

What a difference now! With our plenitude of ingredients, we could make exciting and unique salads every night. But the inspiration for those creations doesn’t always strike. So I’ve been stockpiling ideas, and maybe one will strike your fancy.

Like the warm asparagus and shallot salad with mustard dressing shown above. With poached eggs and prosciutto, it’s substantial enough for a meal, and sparkles with the flavor of toasted mustard seeds (see recipe).

Baby kale with marinated anchovies get their protein boost from hard-cooked eggs and white anchovies found in supermarket and Italian deli departments. Put a little garlic in your vinaigrette for this salad and, if you have it, a shot of anchovy-based colatura.

Caesar salad with oven “fried” chicken takes a classic beyond cliche. Or maybe it doesn’t, but the chicken is so delicious you won’t care. This salad could be made with leftover oven fried chicken. If you’ve never made that, here’s how: Season boneless, skinless chicken thighs with salt and pepper. Dust with flour. Dip in beaten egg and coat with dried bread crumbs or panko mixed with grated parmesan and enough olive oil to moisten. Bake at 400F until browned and cooked through. Cool a few minutes and cut in bite-sized pieces.

There’s a bonus sardine in the photo–feel free to leave it out, but consider adding a few jarred anchovies to the mix (or, once again, a spritz of colatura to the dressing).

I ate this trio of perfect ingredients–burrata, zucchini and tomato–in a Pugliese resort called Masseria Torricella. It’s a Caprese salad tweak, of course, one that’s pretty irresistible. If you have a spiralizer (I don’t), you can make the zucchini noodles with ease. Or use the julienne setting on your mandoline. Or buy the packaged julienned zucchini available in some markets. Salt the zucchini and set in a colander to drain for an hour or two. Gently squeeze dry and dress all three ingredients with your best olive oil, along with a drizzle of your best balsamic.

Chickpea and tuna salad is one of my go-to meals when the larder is nearly bare. Usually I have cans of chickpeas and tuna on hand to combine with whatever crunchy vegetables and savory things might be in the fridge–for instance, green onions, bell pepper, fennel and olives. I drizzle olive oil and squeeze lemon juice right into the bowl, ending with salt and lots of cracked red pepper. I can make this salad in 10 minutes flat, and be assured I’ll love every bite.

Writing this post reminded me of an amazing Winter White Salad I once had at Al di La, in Brooklyn. On a frigid day, I ate lunch alone, with plenty of time to marvel over the snowy landscape outside and the equally wondrous whiteness of Jerusalem artichokes, cauliflower, turnip, parsnip, fennel, Belgian endive and salsify on my plate.

As you can see in the linked recipe, the vegetables are cut lace-thin on a mandoline and dressed in a champagne vinaigrette. Not the easiest salad to shop for or to make, but it means something that, years later, I’m still thinking about that salad.

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Warm Asparagus and Shallot Salad with Mustard Dressing
Prep Time
20 mins
Cook Time
15 mins
Total Time
35 mins
 
This recipe was based on a dish by Chef Bill Telepan.
Course: Salad
Cuisine: Mediterranean
Servings: 4 servings
Ingredients
  • 4 shallots peeled and quartered (do not cut off root ends)
  • ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil divided
  • Sea salt
  • 8 ounces asparagus cut in 2-inch pieces
  • 2 teaspoons yellow mustard seeds
  • 2 teaspoons grainy Dijon mustard
  • 1 teaspoon white balsamic vinegar
  • 4 large eggs
  • 6 ounces frisee torn in pieces, or other microgreens
  • 8 slices prosciutto di Parma or San Daniele
  • Freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
  1. In a medium skillet, sauté shallots in 1 tablespoon olive oil over high heat until they begin to sizzle and turn brown in spots. Sprinkle with salt. Reduce heat, cover and continue to cook until just tender, about 2 minutes longer. Transfer shallots to a small bowl.
  2. Heat another tablespoon of olive oil over high heat in same pan. Cook asparagus, stirring, until lightly browned and barely tender. Return shallots to pan and warm over low heat.
  3. Heat a small skillet over medium-high heat. Toast mustard seeds for about 30 seconds until aromatic. Remove from heat and add a little water to prevent further browning. Stir in remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil, the grainy mustard and vinegar.
  4. Fill a deep skillet two-thirds full of salted water and bring to a simmer. One by one, crack eggs into skillet and nudge whites closer to yolks. Turn off heat and spoon hot water over eggs until whites are cooked.
  5. Meanwhile, place frisee in a bowl, toss well with dressing and tong onto 4 plates. Arrange warm asparagus and shallots on top.
  6. When eggs are cooked, lift each one with a slotted spoon and nestle on one side of plate. Drape prosciutto on the other side. Finish with a little black pepper.

 

Your Best Balsamic Vinegar–Use It Now!

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For lunch I ate a Fontina-and-tomato toastie, drizzled with traditionally made balsamic vinegar, the kind that costs $75 and up.

Dinner included a sauteed mushroom and peashoot salad, dotted with the same luxurious vinegar.

Dessert was salted caramel ice cream with peaches, strawberries, almonds sauteed in butter and–you guessed it–a little swirl of aceto balsamico.

Why am I using expensive balsamic vinegar as an everyday treat?

Here’s the story. Last fall I eagerly accepted my thoughtful friend Mary Anna’s offer to bring traditionally made balsamic vinegar from an acetaia in Modena, and ordered two bottles, one for me and one for daughter Kate. We compared notes not long ago and realized neither of us had even opened the box.

A whole year had gone by without so much as a taste of that delicious elixir!

Life is too short for that kind of behavior. So we’re fighting the impulse to hoard something special for an ever-receding perfect event or group of people. Instead, the new rule is to use real balsamic vinegar whenever we feel like it.

I started by mixing it into salad vinaigrette for relatives. After one taste, someone complimented the dressing. The only other ingredients were a decent but not outstanding Sicilian olive oil, sea salt and black pepper. So I’m pretty sure the vinegar gets credit for elevating that salad to the wow! category.

Before talking more about making the most of traditional balsamic, let’s review the basics. Balsamic vinegar can be made legally only in the regions of Modena and Reggio Emilia. The best begins with cooking juice from particular varietals (including lambrusco and trebbiano) to form a thick must that is then fermented. The long aging process calls for carefully transferring the vinegar to ever-smaller barrels. Eventually, it is packaged in a unique bulbous bottle with a narrow base.

The confusing thing is that lesser vinegars (priced as low as $4) that can also be labelled balsamic comes from these same Italian regions.

The most common type blends a mediocre wine vinegar with a trace of must, coloring the liquid with caramel. It has been splashed around menus in this country for so long that, if you’re like me, you’re thoroughly sick of its harsh flavor.

To make the situation even more confusing, there’s a middle ground: young, well-made, moderately priced “baby” balsamics made from 100% must but aged less, up to three years or so. Often these are labelled “condimento,” a vague term that nonetheless is attached to some excellent products, with a price range of $20-$40 or so.

I plan to write a post on choosing a good balsamic brand. In the meantime, if you have traditional balsamic or a good-quality condimento in your cupboard (or are willing to buy them), here are some ideas. In general, acidic foods such as fruit benefit from your best balsamic’s sweet complexity and so will rich ones such as meat, cheese or rich pasta dishes.

Vegetables: Drizzle grilled zucchini with good olive oil and your best balsamic. Or sprinkle droplets on and around a platter of asparagus wrapped in prosciutto.

Meat or Fish: Garnish a grilled or pan-seared steak, lamb chops or fresh tuna with a bit of good balsamic.

Ice cream or berries: Better yet, put them together, spooning berries over vanilla or custard ice cream and drizzling with balsamic. Peaches and mangos are other fruits that take well to a good balsamic.

Cheese and Tomatoes: For the ultimate Caprese, drizzle good olive oil over mozzarella slices and dot the tomatoes with good balsamic; finish with a sprinkle of sea salt. Improve a cheese platter by precision-dropping balsamic onto aged Asiago or Parmigiano Reggiano chunks. And don’t forget to try that open-faced cheese and tomato toastie I mentioned in the beginning.

A little good-quality balsamico goes a long way but do add enough for the lovely flavor to come through. For some dishes, such as two scoops of ice cream, a demitasse spoonful would be about right.

What will I do when the last drop of balsamico is gone? Buy more, of course, either from my favorite Italian deli or an online supplier. Or drop some hints for the holidays or my next birthday.

Bresaola with Arugula and Other Italian Deli Salads

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When a student in a cooking class vows to make a certain dish that very night, it’s the ultimate compliment. There were several enthusiastic promises along those lines when I demonstrated a classic salad consisting of thinly sliced bresaola topped with a heap of arugula and shaved Parmigiano Reggiano cheese.

Everyone assembled their own salad, seasoning it with olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper passed at the table.

The fact that you can make the salad in three minutes flat probably had something to do with its popularity. Also the fact that bresaola, an air-cured beef from northern Italy, is new to many people.

I ate a perfect version of this salad in a casual outdoor cafe overlooking Roman ruins in Fiesole. Supple slices of bresaola, tangy arugula, paper-thin slices of cheese so tender it crumbles under its own weight. It’s easy to bring these flavors back home. Just make sure the ingredients are the best and this salad will deliver, every time.

Here’s a deli salad with prosciutto di Parma that dishes up like a dream: frisee dressed with a mustard vinaigrette, with the prosciutto draped along the side and a poached egg tucked in the middle.

Sometimes it’s great to mix up all the good flavors normally displayed separately on an antipasto platter. That’s what happens in a chopped salad I like to make with cubed Genoa salami, mozzarella, black olives, pickled Italian peppers, chickpeas and chopped romaine or escarole–good things from the deli case plus a few fresh ingredients (recipe below).

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Bresaola with Arugula and Parmigiano Reggiano Shavings
Prep Time
10 mins
 

What a flavor pay-off, with minimal effort! 

Course: Main Dish
Cuisine: Italian
Servings: 2 servings
Ingredients
  • 3 ounces thinly sliced Bresaola air-cured beef
  • 4 ounces arugula or mixed micro greens
  • 12 grape or cherry tomatoes
  • 8 oil-cured olives optional
  • 2 lemon wedges
  • Extra virgin olive oil
  • Balsamic vinegar or white wine vinegar
  • Sea salt
  • Freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
  1. Arrange Bresaola slices on two plates. Lightly top each with arugula. Place tomatoes and olives (if using) around edges. Garnish with lemon wedges.
  2. Pass olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper at the table.

 

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Chopped Italian Deli Salad
Prep Time
20 mins
 

Try this salad: crisp greens tossed with good things from the deli case. The recipe is from PIATTO UNICO, by Toni Lydecker. (Wrong photo: Sorry, can't seem to remove from the recipe template!)

Course: Main Dish
Cuisine: Italian
Servings: 4 servings
Ingredients
  • ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil plus more to taste
  • 2 tablespoons red or white wine vinegar
  • ¼ cup snipped basil dill, chives or parsley leaves
  • Sea salt or kosher salt
  • Freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 cup fresh mozzarella cubes or halved bocconcini about 5 ounces
  • 2 to 3 ounces thick-cut Genoa salami cut in small cubes
  • 1 can chickpeas (19 ounces), drained and rinsed
  • 8 black oil-cured olives pitted
  • 2 or 3 pickled Italian peppers
  • 3 cups shredded crisp greens such as romaine escarole, or a mixture
Instructions
  1. Whisk together the olive oil, vinegar, basil, ½ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper in a bowl large enough to hold the salad. Add the mozzarella, salami, chickpeas, olives and peppers; stir until coated with the dressing. Place the greens on top. (At this point the salad can be refrigerated for several hours.)
  2. Toss the greens with the ingredients at the bottom of the bowl. Taste and add more olive oil, vinegar, salt or pepper if needed.
Recipe Notes

Note: This salad can be varied in keeping with deli ingredients you might have on hand or want to try. For example, thin strips of mortadella and small cubes of semi-soft Asiago or provolone could be substituted for the salami and mozzarella. Marinated artichokes or mushrooms could stand in for the peperoncini.

 

Tagliata con Rucola (AKA Italian Steak and Arugula Salad)

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Rosy slices of grilled steak on a bed of dressed arugula, with Parmigiano Reggiano shavings and a few ripe tomato wedges. in 2016 that dish sounds pleasing but hardly surprising. In the summer of 1985,  though, during a sultry July in Tuscany, it seemed fresh and new. Suddenly this steak and arugula salad was everywhere.

I remember encountering tagliata con rucola for the first time in a hillside restaurant with a terrace, overlooking the steaming city of Florence, where we had gone to escape the heat. Looking around, I could see other customers digging into an appetizing toss of greens strewn artfully with strips of beef and cheese curls. I couldn’t wait to taste it.

Bistecca alla fiorentina has always been, of course, a standard offering of Tuscan restaurants. Usually an enormous slab of beef (traditionally, from the Chianina cow), cooked al sangue (very rare). And often accompanied by a salad that might include tomatoes. Slicing a steak, whether boneless or bone in, turns it into a tagliata di manzo and, somehow, placing the strips ON the salad with a few embellishments creates a perfect unity of flavors.

I don’t know which clever chef first assembled tagliata con rucola, which became a standard in home kitchens as well as restaurants.  Checking Italian sites such as cucinaitaliana.it, I scrolled through tagliata musings by cooks debating whether to rub olive oil on the steak before grilling, or suggesting black Hawaiian sea,  or rhapsodizing over the merits of a pizzico (bit) of butter or drizzle of traditional Balsamic vinegar after grilling the steak.

Returning from an early fall visit to friends in North Carolina, I tucked green Cherokee tomatoes into every corner of my suitcase. When they ripened, I set aside two from this precious bounty, bought a prime steak (go to Locale, St. Pete people) and some arugula from the farmer’s market. With hardly any effort, we had a feast.

When tomatoes are out of season, no need to wait until next year for tagliata con rucola. Substitute roasted potato wedges. Or chunks of roasted or pickled beets. Or braised sweet-sour cipolline onions.

TAGLIATA
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Italian Steak and Arugula Salad
Prep Time
20 mins
Cook Time
8 mins
Total Time
28 mins
 
Course: Main Course, Salad
Cuisine: Italian
Servings: 2 people
Ingredients
  • 1 pound boneless well-marbled beef steak such as New York strip steak or ribeye
  • Extra virgin olive oil
  • Sea salt
  • Freshly ground black pepper
  • 6 ounces arugula
  • Juice of 1/2 lemon
  • 1 or 2 ripe tomatoes cut in wedges
  • Chunk of Parmigiano Reggiano or Grana Padano cheese or 2 to 3 ounces crumbled Gorgonzola cheese
Instructions
  1. Rub both sides of the steak with a little olive oil and sprinkle generously with salt and pepper. Let stand until room temperature.
  2. Prepare a hot fire on a gas or charcoal grill. Grill the steak, turning once, until seared and cooked to rare or medium rare (about 8 minutes, depending on thickness). Transfer with tongs to a cutting board and let stand for a few minutes until the juices are reabsorbed.
  3. Toss the arugula in a large bowl with 2 tablespoons of olive oil, more or less, the lemon juice, and salt and pepper to taste. Arrange greens on 2 dinner plates.
  4. Slice steak across the grain at a diagonal and place in the center of the greens. Using a vegetable peeler, cut shavings from the Parmigiano wedge, letting them fall directly onto the salad. Place tomato wedges around the edges of the plates.

 

Italian Steak and Arugula Salad

(makes 2 servings)

1 pound boneless well-marbled beef steak such as New York strip steak or ribeye
Extra virgin olive oil
Sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
6 ounces arugula
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1 or 2 ripe tomatoes, cut in wedges
Chunk of Parmigiano Reggiano or Grana Padano cheese, or 2 to 3 ounces crumbled Gorgonzola cheese

1. Rub both sides of the steak with a little olive oil and sprinkle generously with salt and pepper. Let stand until room temperature.

2. Prepare a hot fire on a gas or charcoal grill. Grill the steak, turning once, until seared and cooked to rare or medium rare (about 8 minutes, depending on thickness). Transfer with tongs to a cutting board and let stand for a few minutes until the juices are reabsorbed.

3. Toss the arugula in a large bowl with 2 tablespoons of olive oil, more or less, the lemon juice, and salt and pepper to taste. Arrange greens on 2 dinner plates.

4. Slice steak across the grain at a diagonal and place in the center of the greens. Using a vegetable peeler, cut shavings from the Parmigiano wedge, letting them fall directly onto the salad. Place tomato wedges around the edges of the plates.