big italian salad

According to my Myers-Briggs personality type (ISFJ, dat’s me!), my kitchen style is farmhouse. That is SPOT ON, you guys, as I have been dreaming of a farmhouse sink and butcher block counters in my kitchen for ages.

Serve this easy chopped salad with classic Italian bread for lunch, or as an appetizer for Italian meatballs and pasta! Then keep on living the Italian dream with dessert! Try panna cotta, moist olive oil cake, ricotta blueberry cake, or raspberry pound cake tiramisu.

Whew, I’m so glad you came back. I was a little worried. Because I have big things to tell you about — BIG SALAD things, that is. Like the kind you see here, chockfull of lettuces and tomatoes and thinly sliced celery and red onion and salty olives and Parmesan cheese shavings and tangy pepperoncini peppers all tossed in an amazing classic Italian dressing. It’s the kind of salad I actually get excited about, which doesn’t happen often. But when it does, I.am.obsessed. And I make it eleventeen times in a row for lunch and dinner side salad and sometimes just actual dinner because I love it so much.

Though in the case of this salad, I made just one batch and have been crunching/munching away on it all week long. Because did I mention it’s a BIG salad? It totally is.

It seems like summer is finally popping in its sunshine-y face around these parts and with that comes my favorite thing to do of all the things — eat outside. All winter long I dream of sitting on my deck with a cold beer eating something from the grill for dinner with side dishes of the easy, cool, light, healthy, fresh, flavorful variety. This salad definitely fits that category. The most work you have to do to make this salad happen is chop up some veggies with a knife and give the homemade dressing a good ol’ shake in a Mason jar. Toss, toss, toss, devour. Repeat if desired. Do it all in the sunshine.

This salad would be great for parties and potlucks, too, many of which I’m sure you cool peeps have on the schedule for the summer. I have a few planned myself, but not enough to satisfy the number of times I’m going to crave this salad (which may just be every day, for real). So when I don’t have an occasion for which to bring the big salad, I’ll make one for myself, put some salad jars together with dressing on the bottom (because ain’t nobody got time for soggy salads), stock them in the fridge and enjoy them for lunches and dinners and the like all week long. This is my summer eating plan and I’m sticking to it. If you want to follow suit, I’d approve.

OK so tell me: What is your personality type’s kitchen style? And can I invite myself over to it with this salad? I can bring brownies, too.

Big Italian Salad

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• Author: Adapted from Food & Wine
• Prep Time: 15 mins
• Total Time: 15 mins
• Yield: 6 to 8 servings 1x
• Category: Salad
• Cuisine: Italian

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Ingredients

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For the salad:

• 1 heart romaine lettuce, chopped
• 1 small head radicchio, cored and chopped
• 1/4 head iceberg lettuce, chopped
• 1 celery rib, thinly sliced
• 1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced
• 1 cup grape tomatoes
• 1/2 cup pitted green olives
• 8 pepperoncini peppers
• 1 cup shaved Parmesan cheese

For the dressing:

• 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons mayonnaise
• 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• Salt and pepper to taste

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Instructions

1. In a large bowl, gently toss together ingredients for salad. Add all ingredients for dressing to a resealable jar; seal jar and shake vigorously to combine (alternatively, combine ingredients in a small bowl and whisk together until well combined). Drizzle dressing over salad, lightly toss salad again, and serve immediately.

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