by Nanette Geller

I haven’t seen frisée (curly endive) at the KCC farmers market for a couple of months, so I was delighted to find this gorgeous bunch yesterday at the MA'O booth.

Since I’d also picked up fresh eggs from Blue Lotus, we were all set for one of our favorite meals, Salad Lyonnais – salad with bacon and eggs.

Click here for details on some Free Range Gourmet variations, including vegetarian and vegan versions.

I keep thick-sliced bacon in the freezer and cut off what I need. Tightly wrapped, it keeps well for a couple of months. It’s easy to cut crosswise strips from the frozen bacon.

Last night, I sautéed some sliced shallots and julienned red pepper in the rendered bacon fat before making the dressing (shallot and red pepper from Pit Farm). The red pepper adds a nice touch of sweetness to contrast with the bitter greens.

To make the dressing, I added red wine vinegar, a touch of Dijon mustard, a little salt, and lots of coarsely ground black pepper to the pan with the bacon fat, bacon, shallots and red pepper.

The frisée was more mature than the tender young frisée I usually buy at SKA, so it was a little on the tough side. I tossed it for a minute in the hot pan with the dressing to wilt it before plating, which left the salad with just the right bite.

The salad is topped with a perfectly poached egg and shaved Parmigiano-Reggiano. The way that the oozy, rich egg yolk combines with the vinegar and bacon fat dressing to coat the greens puts this salad in a class by itself.

The nice folks at MA'O said they had lots of frisée, so I’m hoping they’ll have it again next Saturday. And I hope you’re inspired to try Salad Lyonnaise for yourself.

Permalink posted by Nanette @ 8/07/2011 05:27:00 PM