Of all the greens, we prefer the ones with crunchy texture and bitterish taste - frisée, endive, radicchio, wild arugula and such. These greens certainly have lots of character and call for a strong, rich, acidic, and slightly sweet dressing.
Tough-leaved greens like radicchio, frisée and endive also work great in warm salads. They don’t wilt as much and as fast as arugula, spinach and others, and retain their crunch even after being lightly sautéed or grilled.
This French-inspired salad is one of our recent favorites. Its warms, richness of bacon and poached eggs make it an excellent, comforting winter meal.
For two servings you will need:
- 1 large frisée salad head (or 2 small)
- 1 Endive head, preferably purple for the color contrast
- 2-3 thick bacon slices, skin removed, coarsely chopped
- 2-2.5 Tbsp sherry vinegar
- ½ – ¾ tsp sugar
- Salt, to taste (careful here - the bacon is quite salty as a rule)
- Black pepper, to taste
- 2-4 poached eggs, depending on your appetite (you can take duck eggs as well)
Cut off and discard the small stalk that holds the frisée leaves together. Thoroughly rinse the leaves under cold water and dry in a salad spinner or on a piece of paper towel.
Rinse and pat dry endive. Cut in half lengthwise and slice each half into not too thin slices.
In a wide and relatively deep pan, put bacon and cook on a medium low heat, stirring every now and then, until it starts rendering fat. As the bacon melts and crisps up, gradually raise the heat and spoon out the fat to a small bowl. When all the fat has been rendered, raise the heat to medium high and let the bacon pieces get nice deep brown tan and become pleasantly crunchy, but no too tough.
In the meantime, start poaching eggs as described here. Or cook them in advance and quickly reheat before serving the salad.
Remove the bacon from the pan and set aside. To the pan, return rendered bacon fat, add sherry vinegar and heat them up slowly on a medium heat. Season with sugar, salt and black pepper. Add frisée and endive. Toss them gently with a spatula so they get coated all over with the dressing, while warming up a bit.
Divide the frisée and endive between the serving plates. Put a hot poached egg on top of each serving and sprinkle with the bacon pieces. Sometimes, for an extra touch I add a small handful of freshly made croutons.
This salad can be served as a whole meal, as an appetizer or as a part of an entree. I tried it as a side to a variety of proteins - crab cakes, sautéed large Japanese scallops, grilled beef fillet mignon - and it played well with each of them.
Sometimes, I substitute bacon with prosciutto. Since the prosciutto is much leaner than bacon, you don't need to render the fat from it. Instead, you slowly crisp it up in a small amount of oil.
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