Secrets to best salads: Freshness, crunch, balance and a surprise element
I love salad. What makes a great salad? Fresh, crisp produce. What makes a salad extraordinary? Balance and surprise.
As in a stunning salad made from four citrus fruits, hearty endives and colorful chicories on the menu at The Progress in San Francisco. There, chef-owners Stuart Brioza and Nicole Krasinski shave ricotta salata in thin curls over the salad to transport it well beyond any predictable bowl of greens.
Of course, salads prove best when composed with in-season produce. The neat and tidy piles of red and green radicchios, endives and chicories we spied on a visit to the San Francisco farmers market in the Ferry Building help demystify the chefs' creation. Likewise, the inspiring variety of fresh, seasonal citrus at nearby stalls.
Back home, I am happy to find a wide selection of citrus in large supermarkets. That means I can add wedges of satsuma mandarins, slices of Oro Blanco grapefruit and blood orange to my salad and Meyer lemon in the dressing.
As for the greens, I turn to Deborah Madison for help understanding endive. In her "Vegetable Literacy," Madison writes of the
