In an update to last year's Ateliers Verts Magazine article entitled "3 of The Finest Mediterranean Salads", where we highlighted the finest salad from France, Italy and Greece, we've been asked to include Spain this year!
Who are we to refuse? We had this salad a while ago in Barcelona, so we can attest to it's deliciousness!
And again as we did previously, we have suggested an Organic Spanish olive oil to accompany it. Buen provecho!
Salad Niçoise from France 🇫🇷
Born in Nice in the South of France it's a salad which is basically an assembly of whatever is grown or raised in the garden, combined with whatever is in the pantry:
There's no hard and fast rule to making this - some like to add fresh tuna, or boiled potatoes and green peppers or
Caviar instead of anchovies!
Pair it with this lovely provencal organic olive oil:
Chateau Virant 🇫🇷
Greek Salad from Greece 🇬🇷
The ingredients of the Greek salad, like tomatoes, cucumbers, and onions, are staples in ancient Greek cuisine and were used in various ways. Interestingly the Greek Salad as we know it today is often linked to the Plaka neighbourhood of Athens, where restaurateurs are said to have created it (adding feta cheese) to capitalise on the rising tourism industry of the 1960's and 1970's
Greek salad or horiatiki salad (Greek: χωριάτικη σαλάτα or θερινή σαλάτα) is a salad in Greek cuisine generally made with pieces of tomatoes, cucumbers, onion, feta cheese, and olives (typically Kalamata olives) and dressed with salt, Greek oregano, lemon juice and olive oil. Green peppers are often added too.
Pair it with this lovely Organic Olive Oil from the Greek island of Crete: Itania 🇬🇷
Caprese Salad from Italy 🇮🇹
Caprese salad literally means the salad from the Island of Capri off the Italian coast. There are so many stories about how this salad came into being. But we like the one which suggests that post World War I, a hotel employee working in the kitchen put the dish together to make a patriotic 3- coloured plate of food to represent the Italian flag - Tricolore.
It's so simple to prepare with ripe tomato slices, fresh mozzarella cheese slices and fresh basil leaves, seasoned with salt and pepper and drizzled with a good olive oil. Often a balsamic glaze is added.
Pair it with this lovely Organic Olive Oil from the Italian region of Tuscany: Trebio 🇮🇹
Pipirrana Salad from Spain 🇪🇸
Pipiranna is a traditional Spanish summer salad that is super easy to make. The main ingredients are local tomatoes, cucumbers, red onion, green pepper and red pepper - all you have to do is to chop them finely.
For the salad dressing you just need garlic, cumin powder, salt, red wine vinegar and Extra virgin olive oil (see below)
Then just grind the garlic, salt, and cumin in a mortar and add the olive oil and vinegar.
You can add protein and it's often tossed with flaked tuna, prawns, or unfortunately octopus - Octopus is now on our banned list as it's been deemed a sentient being - perhaps switch to squid instead?
Pair it with this lovely Organic Olive Oil from high in the hills of Les Garrigues province in Northern Catalonia, Spain L'Estornell
🇪🇸
So what about Vinegar? We love Balsamic Vinegar from Modena. The company with the longest tradition of producing Balsamic Vinegar is Guisti which was founded in Modena, Italy in 1605. Drizzle it or make a balsamic reduction / glaze.
A simple way of making the balsamic glaze is to get some balsamic vinegar, mix it with brown sugar and reduce it over some heat until the consistency is perfect. With the right balsamic vinegar you may not need any sugar at all.
Happy Eating! 😋
(Header Image: ©IbbaFlorine: Le Café du Jardin at La Chèvre d'Or in Eze, France. Other images: Niçoise Salad by Diana Chistruga on allrecipes, Greek Salad courtesy of The Real Greek Restaurant in London, Caprese Salad from Downshiftology with Lisa Bryan and Spanish Salad courtesy of the SpanishRadish)
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