Pizzeria Salad
a.k.a. one of my favorite salads
I recently got to talk to Emily Christensen for a piece she wrote for the Philadelphia Inquirer about the intersection of diet culture and salads: “Once a ‘meal of deprivation,’ these cooks are reclaiming salad from diet culture’s clutches.” She begins this piece: “Like a lot of fat people, I have a complicated relationship with salad.”
Talking with Emily for this piece, I got to reflect on growing up with sad bags of mesclun mix with straight balsamic vinegar to eventually loving salads with tons of fat and flavor. I shared my memories of the house salad at Gus’s, one of my favorite things ever, which I included an ode to and recipe for in Small Victories.
And it got me thinking about the salad I make most often these days, which I lovingly refer to a Pizzeria Salad since it’s inspired by the salads you often find at pizzerias— it’s full of salty, briny things like olives and peperoncini peppers and a red wine vinaigrette with dried oregano and minced, raw garlic. It’s punchy and bracing and I just love it.
To make it, just whisk together the dressing ingredients in a large salad bowl, and then add the olives, some sliced red onion (you can leave it out if you don’t like raw onion), some halved cherry tomatoes (swipe right on this IG post to see the absolute easiest way to cut a bunch at once, and yes you can just chop a large tomato), and the peperoncini (before I slice them, I break them open over the bowl so any brine inside combines with the dressing, then I slice them and add them to the mix).
At this point what you have is an incredible tomato salad which can be mixed with cooked pasta, rice, or any cooked grain, or spooned onto sliced mozzarella, or piled on a piece of toast slathered with ricotta. It’s also an excellent condiment for grilled or roasted chicken/fish/meat/vegetables.
I digress. To finish the salad, I just add chopped romaine to the bowl (sometimes half romaine, half arugula which I always give a rough chop to first because otherwise I find it a little hard to eat).
The salad bowl can sit like this— dressing and tomatoes and such mixed together on the bottom, lettuce on top— at room temperature for about an hour or so, or in the fridge for longer, and then just mix everything together right before you eat.
You can add more things like cubes of mozzarella and/or provolone cheese, or crumbled feta. You could add some sliced or diced salami or any cured meat, or a drained can of tuna. You could add some chickpeas or white beans. You could add a jar of marinated artichoke hearts. You can add whatever you want!
It’s a perfect salad and goes well with just about everything, including, but not limited to, pizza.
Pizzeria Salad / serves about 4
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1 small garlic clove, minced (a Microplane is great for this)
1/2 small red onion, very thinly sliced
A handful of black olives
About a cup of cherry tomatoes, halved (swipe right on this IG post to see the absolute easiest way to cut a bunch at once!)
A few pickled peperoncini peppers
3 hearts of Romaine lettuce, chopped into 1-inch pieces (or 1 or 2, plus a couple large handfuls of roughly chopped arugula)
Place the olive oil, vinegar, salt, oregano, and garlic in the bottom of a large salad bowl and whisk well to combine. Add the onion, olives, and tomatoes. Break the peperoncini peppers open over the bowl so any brine inside of them falls into the bowl. Then roughly chop the peppers and add them to the bowl. Stir everything well to combine.
Add the lettuce. At this point, the salad can sit for a while until you’re ready to serve it. Once you are, mix everything together and serve immediately.
Want to see a fun IG reel of this salad? Head here!
This Sunday…
Join me and my dad as I make all of his favorite dishes: hot dogs (my dad’s name is Doug so we’ll go ahead and call them Hot Dougs, just like the great Chicago hot dog restaurant that closed in 2014), Maple + Mustard Baked Beans (my dad loves these so much that he once requested a container for his birthday), a lesson in how to make your own sauerkraut!!!!, and a really wonderful Peach Upside Down Skillet Cake. We'll sip on easy-to-drink Lemon Shandies. Whether or not you’re celebrating Father’s Day, this class will be a great opportunity to feel the connection being in the kitchen can offer us, whether you’re cooking with your dad or your good friends, or even just yourself! Sign up right here.
If you like this post/recipe, you might also enjoy: my Sunday afternoon classes (I teach live cooking classes every Sunday afternoon and they are so much fun) / my podcast (always free! some new episodes coming very soon!) / my cookbooks.
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Take care, xoxo, Julia