Butter Leaf Lettuce Salad with Fresh Herbs
This salad was inspired by my favorite salad at the now closed, Campanile, created by renowned chef Nancy Silverton (of Osteria Mozza), Mark Peel and Manfred Frankl. It has actually been closed since 2012. Sniff, sniff. The restaurant was beautifully housed in one of Charlie Chaplin’s former offices on La Brea Boulevard in Los Angeles and the food was uncomplicated yet inventive and impeccable. I still dream about their Caesar Salad and their Butter Leaf Salad with Herbs, the mild and tender lettuce leaves were stacked in a small tower with a perfect simple vinaigrette with a bountiful array of fresh chopped herbs. I offer you my take on their iconic salad. Such a perfect spring dish, such a perfect Easter dish. Refreshing and uncomplicated, it is the perfect side salad. Butter Leaf also known as Butterhead is available year round and is easy to find. It is often sold with its roots still attached, and thus stays extra fresh until ready to use. I like to create individual plates but you can go ahead and make this composed salad on a medium sized serving platter, maybe oval or rectangular in shape, if you don’t have the time to make the individual portions. The herbs are not a garnish but rather an integral part of the dressing, don’t be shy. Use a mixture of whatever fresh spring herbs you can find; chervil, mint, tarragon,, dill, chives, or basil. At the end you can add some raw spring vegetables like finely sliced snap peas, peeled and seeded cucumber, radishes, asparagus or fennel. This is another one of those dishes you can put your signature on with your own touches. On this recipe, I finished it with chopped salty pistachios and flower petals. You know me by now, I am a sucker for edible flowers. This salad is healthy, tasty and a real crowd pleaser.
Serves 6/ prep time 15 minutes
Gather
2 small heads butter leaf lettuce, removed from heart, washed and patted dry, do not tear the leaves into small pieces
1/4 cup/ 59 ml white wine vinegar
Juice of 1/2 of a lemon
2 teaspoons / 14.2 g honey
1 large handful of fresh mixed herbs of choice, finely chopped
1/2 cup / 106.5 g olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
6 snap peas, finely sliced on the diagonal
6 small radishes, thinly sliced into rounds
1/4 cup/40 grams salty pistachios, roughly chopped
A handful mixed edible flowers, colorful sprouts or more herbs for garnish
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste
Make
Make your dressing by whisking the vinegar, lemon juice, honey, herbs, olive oil ingredients together in a small bowl. Salt and pepper to taste and then set aside.
Build your composed salad. Depending on whether you decide to do individual plates or a serving platter stack or evenly lay out your lettuce leaves.
Using a spoon delicately drizzle the dressing over the lettuce. Sprinkle your vegetables uniformly over the salad and then the pistachios. Follow with the flower petals or fresh herbs.
Recipe Developed by Anna Getty
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