Makes about 375ml
sea salt ½ teaspoon
red wine vinegar 3 tablespoons
white wine vinegar 2 tablespoons
extra virgin olive oil 300ml, preferably a fruity southern Italian one
1 Put the salt into a bowl.
2 Add the vinegars and leave for a minute to allow the salt to dissolve.
3 Whisk in the olive oil, with 2 tablespoons of water, until the liquids emulsify. Now you can pour the vinaigrette into a clean squeezy bottle and keep it in the fridge for up to a month. It will separate out, so just give it a good shake before you use it.
Shallot dressing
We use this dressing often for salads, especially when they include roasted onions, sometimes on its own and sometimes combined with Giorgio’s dressing.
Makes 150ml
long banana shallots 2, or 4 small round ones, finely chopped
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
red wine vinegar 75ml
extra virgin olive oil 150ml
1 Put the shallots into a bowl and season, then add the vinegar.
2 Leave to marinate for 12 hours in the fridge, then pass through a fine sieve and discard the vinegar. Put the onions into a sterilised jar and add the olive oil. You can keep this in the fridge for up to a month.
Anchovy dressing
Use a blender with a small cup (around 500ml). Blend into a dressing, and store in your squeezy bottle for up to a month.
Makes 200ml
anchovy fillets in oil 14
extra virgin olive oil 120ml
white wine vinegar 3 tablespoons
garlic ½ a clove
dried chilli a pinch (optional)
Sun-dried tomato dressing
Use a blender with a small cup (around 500ml). Blend into a dressing, and store in your squeezy bottle for up to a month.
Makes 200ml
sun-dried tomatoes 8 halves
extra virgin olive oil 100ml
white wine vinegar 2 tablespoons
fresh basil leaves 10
dried oregano a pinch
Black olive dressing
Use a blender with a small cup (around 500ml). Blend into a dressing, and store in your squeezy bottle for up to a month.
Makes 200ml
black olive tapenade 2 tablespoons
anchovy fillets in oil 3
garlic ¼ a clove
extra virgin olive oil 80ml
white wine vinegar 1 tablespoon
Onion and chard salad with broad bean purée
This is a salad that we always made at home, because Margherita could eat everything but the chicory and chilli – although it was a shame she couldn’t enjoy them too, because what I love about this is the contrast of the sweetness from the purée, the slight bitterness of the chard, the sweet and sour of the onions, and the chilli. The chilli brings a lift and a liveliness to the salad; it needs to be a detectable flavour, so if you like you can increase the quantity of mild chillies, or use one hotter one instead.
When it first comes into season I like to substitute the Swiss chard with catalogna, one of the members of the big chicory family, which is similar to the Roman puntarelle, except that puntarelle has little spears inside whereas this one is all white-ish-light-green stems and darker green leaves that look a bit like those of a dandelion. In southern Italy catalogna grows wild everywhere, so when you buy your vegetables in the market, the stallholders will often give you a bunch of it as a present, in the way that they might give you a bundle of herbs at other times of the year. People eat it in all sorts of ways, often sautéd with chilli and garlic, or with ricotta. You could also use the blanched version, the Belgian endive, and just cut it into long strips. It will give you the bitterness, but the shapes and texture will be different.
Although you could make the salad with fresh or frozen broad beans (I am always wary of beans in tins, which may have unwanted ‘agents’ in them), I like to use dried beans. Yes, fresh beans have a fantastic flavour and vivid colour, but dried ones, when they have been soaked and cooked, have a natural viscosity that really helps to bring the purée to the hummus-like consistency that you are looking for. Dried beans are a great gift to humanity: you can keep them in the cupboard or freeze them, you can soak some and if you change your mind about using them straight away you still have 24 hours to use them. And even then, if you cook more than you need, you can cool them down and keep them in a container in the fridge to mix into salads.
When we have the wild fennel, Finocchio selvatico, that comes in from Sicily, I like to use it instead of the fennel seeds, or you could use the fronds from a bulb of Florence fennel, chopped very finely and added at the same stage.
I like to serve this with some thick slices of toasted bread so you can mound some of the purée on top then add some of the chard or chicory and onion to get the full experience of sweet, sour, bitter – and a touch of heat.
Serves 6
dried broad beans 500g
white onions 4 medium
olive oil 150ml
fennel seeds 1 teaspoon (or 50g wild fennel or fennel fronds, finely chopped)
white wine vinegar 50ml
capers in vinegar 2 tablespoons, drained and rinsed
sugar 1 teaspoon
Swiss chard or catalogna chicory 2 bunches
garlic 1 clove, chopped
mild red chilli 1, chopped
extra virgin olive oil, to finish
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Onion and chard salad with broad bean purée
1 Soak the beans in cold water overnight.
2 When ready to cook, chop one of the onions and heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large pan. Add the onion and the fennel seeds, or wild fennel or fennel fonds, if using, and cook gently until the onion is soft and translucent.
3 Drain the beans from their soaking water and add to the pan with just enough fresh water to cover. Bring to the boil, then turn down to a simmer for about 1 hour, until tender. Transfer the beans to a blender along with any remaining cooking water (most of it will have been absorbed) and blend, adding 2 more tablespoons of the olive oil, a little at a time, until you have a quite smooth purée that resembles hummus in texture.
4 Chop the rest of the onions. In a separate pan, heat 2 more tablespoons of olive oil, add the onions and cook gently. When soft and translucent, add the vinegar, capers and sugar. Take off the heat, put the lid on the pan and leave to cool down.
5 Cut the stems from the chard or chicory and blanch in boiling salted water for 3 minutes, adding the leaves for 2 more minutes until the stems are tender, then take off the heat and drain.
6 Heat the rest of the olive oil in a large sauté pan, add the garlic and chilli and cook gently for 1 minute. Add the chard or chicory stems and leaves and sauté gently, so they take on the flavours