Photo: Bistro Salad with Spinach-Caesar Dressing Recipe
Ingredients
- For the Dressing
- 1 head garlic
- 1 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
- Kosher salt
- 1 10-ounce box frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
- 3 anchovy fillets
- 1 large egg yolk
- 1 tablespoon dijon mustard
- 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
- Freshly ground pepper
- For the Salad
- 1/2 pound pancetta, diced
- 3 thick slices ciabatta bread
- Extra-virgin olive oil, for brushing
- Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
- 1/2 pound cremini mushrooms, sliced
- Juice of 1 lemon
- 1 pound small heirloom tomatoes, halved or cut into wedges
- 1/4 pound small mozzarella balls, quartered
- 1/3 cup loosely packed fresh parsley
Directions
Make the dressing: Preheat the oven to 350. Cut the top 1/2 inch off the garlic head and discard; place the garlic on a piece of foil, drizzle with olive oil, season with salt and wrap up. Roast until tender, 30 minutes. Cool; squeeze the cloves from their skins.
Puree the roasted garlic, spinach, anchovies, egg yolk, mustard, vinegar and 3/4 cup water in a blender. With the motor running, slowly add 1 cup olive oil. Season with salt and pepper.
Prepare the salad: Preheat the broiler. Cook the pancetta in a skillet over medium heat until crisp, 6 minutes; transfer to paper towels to drain. Reserve the drippings in the skillet. Brush the bread with olive oil, season with salt and pepper and broil until toasted. Cool, then cut into cubes.
Toss the mushrooms, lemon juice, tomatoes, mozzarella and parsley in a bowl and season with salt and pepper. Add the pancetta, bread cubes and 2 tablespoons of the pancetta drippings and toss. Divide among bowls and drizzle with dressing.
Photograph by Kate Sears
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By subrostud_13170455
on September 23, 2010
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We made this but altered it slightly. After browning the pancetta, we sliced the mushrooms with an egg slicer, then added a little olive oil to the pancetta and browned the mushrooms.
Cut back on the dressing as the salad seemed wet enough. Recipe makes an awful lot of dressing, but it's so good that we can use it on other salads or bruschetta.
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