Red & Green Salad

This is an Italian-style bitter salad, the kind that belongs next to rich pasta or roast meat to cut through the fat. Four kinds of bitter greens do the work: curly chicory sliced into thin rings, Belgian endive arranged leaf by leaf as the base, shaved fennel, and torn radicchio. Thinly sliced radishes scatter across the top for peppery crunch and the red-on-red color that gives the salad its name.

The dressing is restraint itself: five parts good olive oil to two parts red wine vinegar, salt, pepper, and nothing else. No mustard, no garlic, no honey. With vegetables this assertive, the dressing’s job is to coat and season, not to compete.

Kitchen Tips

• Shave the fennel paper thin with a mandoline or a very sharp knife. Thick fennel reads tough and woody in a raw salad.
• Soak sliced fennel and radicchio in ice water for ten minutes before drying and dressing. This firms up the cut edges and tames the bitterness a touch.
• Dress the salad just before serving. Bitter greens wilt quickly once acid hits them.
• Layer the endive leaves as spokes rather than tearing them. Their pale, boat-shaped leaves are part of the presentation.

Variations

• Add shaved Parmigiano-Reggiano or crumbled gorgonzola for a more substantial salad course.
• Scatter toasted walnuts and orange segments for a classic Italian winter version.
• Swap the red wine vinegar for aged balsamic and add a shave of dried fig for sweetness against the bitter leaves.