Salads & Greens

A tasty chicken salad that will be nice if served in small portions as the beginning of an elegant meal, or, in somewhat larger portions as the centerpiece of a light luncheon.

This salad, with tasty herbs and shredded pork, will be a nice beginning to an elegant meal, and will also work well as the centerpiece of a luncheon.

Panzanella is a Tuscan summer bread salad: peasant food, and a way of making stale bread palatable when there was little else to go with it. Panzanella has become considerably richer since the end of the War, because people can now afford to add more of the other ingredients that support the bread, and it is an extremely popular summer dish.

Valeriana, which is also called soncino in Italian, is known by a number of names in English, including sarset, mâche, corn salad, and lamb's lettuce. In this modern Italian recipe it gains grace from hazelnuts, substance from celery, and is seasoned with a tart yogurt sauce.

Radicchio is one of the finest winter salad greens, and also one of the most distinctive, with its white-ribbed, wine-red leaves. The best for this will be the long-leafed varieties of radicchio, grown around Treviso, though red head radicchio will also work.

Pugliesi are fanatical lovers of greens, and if you visit Puglia during the winter months you can be almost certain of being offered Puré di Fave, pureed fava beans, usually with some sort of green and a drizzle of olive oil. Peasant food of the finest kind.

This simple cabbage salad from Friuli Venezia Giulia will be equally tasty with red or green cabbage, though I might choose green because it will contrast with the red of the pancetta.

I have said before that Elisabetta and I cook quite differently; I tend to follow recipes, whereas she opens the fridge and improvises. Leftover string beans led to a very tasty salad with pears, cashew nuts, cheese and more.

Radishes are not the most common salad vegetable in Italy, but you will find them in well stocked markets, and here's a recipe that combines the bitterness of radishes and the sweetness of apples, with yogurt to balance it all. It will serve 4.

Radishes are not the most common salad vegetable in Italy, but you will find them in well stocked markets, and here's a recipe that combines the bitterness of radishes with the sweetness of Valerian and the savory notes of black olives.

A sformato is similar to a soufflé, but not as airy, and therefore doesn't require the care in preparation its French cousin does -- there's no danger that it will deflate. But a sformato is quite elegant, and also quite tasty, and therefore perfect for either a family meal or when company comes calling.

A sformato is similar to a soufflé, but not as airy, and therefore doesn't require the care in preparation its French cousin does -- there's no danger that it will deflate. But a sformato is quite elegant, and also quite tasty. In short, perfect for a family meal or company.

Cantaloupe is one of the nicer and more versatile summer fruits, because it works very well with savory accompaniments too, especially prosciutto (as an antipasto). But it also works well in salad, and this cantaloupe salad is one of Wife Elisabetta's favorite quick summer dishes.

A tasty winter salad that will be perfect as an accompaniment to a roast, and will also be a nice way to start things off.

I must confess, I rarely have leftover roast beef -- when we make it, it invariably disappears, leaving us to wonder what happened to it. However, should you be lucky enough to have some, this roast beef and hard-boiled egg salad will make for a pleasant and slightly different luncheon dish. Served in smaller portions, it will also be a nice antipasto.

A modern Italian recipe for chicken salad with a tasty exotic dressing. Italian chicken salad.

Blached greens with an herb sauce: A refreshing summer dish

Pinzimonio is the simplest Italian summer vegetable dish: A bowl of fresh veggies, which you pick and choose from. The most refreshing side dish or antipasto there is!

This is a classic Jewish recipe from the Veneto, and may seem a little odd: Testine are not leaves, but rather the first half inch (1 cm) of the stem just above the roots of the plant, which one normally tosses when preparing spinach. Giuliana Ascoli Vitali-Norsa notes that to prepare the dish you'll need to start with many pounds of spinach, so this is something to make only when you're also making something else with spinach. In short, a testament to frugality.

Salaton de Capussi e Pomodori, or Cabbage and Tomato Salad: This is a classic late summer salad from the Vicentino. Amadeo Sandri suggests you use a long-bladed knife to cut the cabbage as thinly as possible, and also observes that the presence of raw tomato is a bit unusual for Northeastern Italy.

A tasty, refreshing salad for the winter months.

A Deft Chicken and Vegetable Salad:

This will work quite well either as an antipasto or as a main course, and is a fine example of how Italian cuisine is evolving; when I first came to Florence in 1982 the only place that would have served something along these lines was the city's solitary vegan restaurant. Now you could encounter them elsewhere as well. If you are rushed you can use frozen spinach, and you can add a pleasant touch by slipping a little mozzarella into each spinach ball before you fry them.

Speck and Arugola with Parmigiano Shavings, or Speck e Rucola con Scaglie di Parmigiano: This is a tasty salad of the sort that one might find in a restaurant, though it will also be served in homes in the Dolomites. Ideally, the arugola should be what's known as di campo, in other words gathered out in a field, and have some bitter bite to it.

Chicken Salad with Renette Apples, or Insalata di Pollo con Mele Renette: Renette apples are strongly flavored, are a bit grainy, and have a warm citric acidity (as opposed to the cool crispness of a Granny Smith). The recipe is from the Osteria Vecchio Botticino in Brescia.

Spinach Sformato, or Sformato di Spinaci: Simplicity in itself and common throughout Italy; this particular recipe is from the Abruzzo, and also calls for raisins, which one won't necessarily encounter everywhere.

Olive Salad, or Olive in Insalata: This is a rather unusual recipe from Lazio. You'll need:

A Persimmon Salad: When I wrote about persimmons a while back I mentioned that there aren't that many Italian recipes for them. John writes...

Salad with Fromazdo Cheese: In much of Italy salads are simply dressed with oil, vinegar, salt, and no pepper. In Val D'Aosta things are a little different, because it's too far north for olive trees to grow, and few could afford olive oil, which was imported from either Liguria, Provence or Lago Maggiore. Instead they used walnut oil, and a variety of dairy and cheese mixtures that Americans and northern Europeans may find more normal than would most of the people living elsewhere in Italy.

Raw Carrot Salad, or Insalata di Carote Crude: This is an unusual recipe -- though carrots are extremely common in Italy they are often considered an herb to be used to provide flavor to a cooked dish, and only occasionally appear in salads. Even rarer is their appearance as the main ingredient of a salad. The recipe is from Serravezza, a town on the Versilian coastal plain to the west of Lucca.

Sweet and Sour Arugola, or Radicchio in Agrodolce: This is a fairly elaborate salad that will work well as a starter.

This is a fairly elaborate modern salad that will work well as a starter.

A fairly elaborate, obviously modern salad that will work well as a starter.

This is a fairly elaborate salad that will work nicely as a starter.

This is a fairly elaborate salad that will work with a light meat dish.

Crisp Salad With Quail's Eggs, or Insalata Croccante con Uova di Quaglia: This is a fairly elaborate salad that will work nicely as a starter.

Onion Salad, or Insalata di Cipolle: All sorts of things can go into a salad. This, from Piemonte, is made with onions, and will work best if you use mild or sweet onions -- sweet red onions if you're in Italy. If you're in the US, you might want to try Vidalias. You'll need:

Walnut Salad, or Insalata alle Noci: Liguria is famed for its walnut trees, which go into a number of sauces, including one that's quite nice over ravioli. They also go into salads, and here are a couple of recipes, one combining walnuts, greens, and fish, and the other greens, walnuts and fruit. Very different but both good.

Summer Salad, or 'Nzalata D'Està: This is classic Sicilian summer salad, and as happens with many traditional recipes there aren't any proportions -- you go with what you like.

Sicilian Orange Salad, or 'Nzalata D'Aranci Pattuali: This is a classic salad from Palermo, and should ideally be made using a variety of oranges known as melaranci, also known as pattallu, that were brought to Sicily by the Arab settlers a thousand years ago.

Sauteed wild Greens, or Erbe Rifatte: Wild greens are curious beasts and cover a range of plants. Lisetta picked dandelions and served them at a delightful meal in the hinterland of Verona. When I asked how she did them...

Insalata di Cipolle con le Sard, or Onion Salad with Salted Sardines: Ada Boni discusses this most traditional dish in a book on Roman cooking, saying that it rwquires a determined stomach, and is thus falling from favor. I have my doubts, because I often encounter something quite similar, albeit with less onion, along the coast in Southern Tuscany.

Puntarelle: This is a classic Roman dish; the word is a Roman argot, and until fairly recently there was a certain amount of discussion outside of Rome as to what puntarelle are. Turns out they're chicory shoots of a variety known as Catalogna, picked while still young and tender. As is the case with all chicory they do have a bitter undertone to them that makes them a very pleasing accompaniment

Spinach Canederli: These are more of a side dish than an accompaniment to soup; they'll go nicely with a stew or goulash. As a side dish the recipe will serve 4.

Turkey and radicchio work quite well in this salad, the sweetness of the former contrasting pleasantly with the bitterness of the latter.

A green salad is a classic we're all familiar with, but salads can be much more: They're an excellent foil for creativity, and here we have radicchio rosso from Treviso blending nicely with pine nuts and alici, the smallest, most delicate representatives of the sardine family.

Spinach goes very well with roasted meats, and if you’re eating in an old-fashioned home or restaurant in Northern Italy, you may well be served it with a sprinkling of the drippings from the roast.

This is a winter caponata, as you might guess from the list of ingredients. It is also the traditional cold dish served on Christmas day in the Madonie region.

Nothing refreshes more than a good salad when it's hot!

A variety of Roman salads, some cooked and some raw, that are especially refreshing in summer.

A sardine and onion salad: it's not for the weak of heart, but it will be bracing!

Seasoned with a cheerful herb-laced sauce made with hard-boiled eggs: Perfect in summer!

An elegant Neapolitan fish & greens salad that will be perfect in important occasions.

A quick, refreshing summer string bean salad from Friuli Venezia Giulia. Good for a picnic too!

String beans and tuna, seasoned with lemon juice: Profoundly refreshing.

A tasty lemony pasta salad with plenty of tuna, which makes it a meal by itself (or with a green salad)

A big bowl of fresh, tasty chopped raw vegetables served with oil and vinegar that your guests can mix and season to taste in their own little bowls: the perfect antipasto or side dish.

Puglian winter fare, and a classic Christmas dish too.

The traditional beginning of the Neapolitan Christmas Eve dinner, and a tasty too.

An elaborate salad spinach, bell pepper, zucchini and pancetta.

Italy, from Rome south, is an immense orange grove, and it is only natural that some of that bounty should find its way into winter salads. Tasty, wonderful orange salads. This salad, with its pretty sunny color, will bring happiness to a winter meal, and be nice in festive occasions, served with roasts or stews.

About the only thing Italian about this rice salad, which includes chicken as well, is the name of the rice. But it could be nice as a quick meal.

All about one of the world's simplest and best salads (mozzarella, tomatoes & basil) and the indignities it suffers beyond the jeweled isle.

"A main-course salad based on raw winter greens can be a cook's playground," writes Erica De Mane, who goes on to suggest several different salads.

"Salt and black pepper may seem odd to put on oranges, but they are traditional seasonings for this Sicilian salad and are central to its taste," says Erica De Mane. And she's right.

According to the Electronic Gourmet Guide this is popular throughout Italy. In my experience oranges tend to be more common in Southern dishes. Nice and simple, however.

"Now that I can find fresh herbs all year long," writes Erica De Mane, "I enjoy making herb salads to add a sunny note to a winter meal..."

Watercress and strawberries may sound like an unusual combination, but Erica de Mane is on the money.

"This is not a traditional Sicilian salad; rather I've taken several common Sicilian ingredients and combined them to produce a sweet and pungent taste very much in a traditional Sicilian style," says Erica de Mane.

"Here I've combined three of my favorite foods - artichokes, seafood, and olives - and simply tossed them together with a white-wine vinaigrette..." writes Erica De Mane.

Cuscus may bring the southern shores of the Mediterranean to mind, but has long been eaten in Italy too, both by Sicilians, who tend to make theirs with fish, and by Italian Jews, who tend to make theirs with meat. But there are other things one can do with cuscus, and this salad is extremely refreshing. Easy to make, too, and quick as well.

Oranges and bulb fennel are fixtures of the Italian winter table, and though the oranges commonly appear at dessert, while the fennel is commonly cooked, they work very well together in this refreshing winter salad, which would also be a nice bet for Valentine's Day, as it is light and won't weigh you down.

Insalata Russa, or Russian Salad, is -- according to Italians -- a traditional Russian dish, while Russians instead call it "Italian salad." Its true origin is probably French, a delight prepared for Russian nobles, who were charmed by its lavishness -- in addition to vegetables, at the time it contained lobster, truffles and more. This much...