Escarole salad with 6-minute eggs, crispy prosciutto, lemon and shaved Parmigiano-Reggiano
It sort of feels like escarole is having a moment — at least if the latest salad addition to the offerings at Billy Can Can, one of our favorite restaurants in Dallas, is any indication. There, executive chef Matt Ford recently introduced a delicious grilled escarole wedge with delicata squash, honeycrisp apple, pepitas and blue cheese to his modern Texas menu.
Escarole’s not a winter green that reliably turns up at the supermarket, but when it does, and when it looks good, we grab it. Especially in winter, when you never know whether you’ll find frisée or endives or radicchio (or none of the above), creating a salad around what’s available and looking great is sound policy.
The inspiration for this particular salad comes from another Dallas restaurant, Sprezza, where we swooned over the combination of lemon, prosciutto, bitter greens, rich egg and shaved parm a couple years ago. Last night the salad was the perfect lead-off to roast lamb with root vegetables; some kind of succulent braised pork, or crispy chicken thighs with fennel would be killer on its heels, too. For a simpler vibe, you could just as happily follow it with a simple pasta (like spaghetti aglio e olio) or even a pizza delivered to your doorstep. (To be perfectly honest, though, we can totally see just having the salad for dinner with a glass of Italian white, maybe a Roero or a Pecorino.)
While intensely cravable and satisfying, the escarole salad is simple to put together and forgiving, just the ingredients mentioned above tossed in lemon juice and olive oil with some lemon zest, a squeeze of anchovy paste for extra umami and lots of black pepper. You can follow it faithfully or play with it, adding or subtracting eggs, prosciutto and parm depending on the richness and saltiness you’re after. Ready then? Here you go.
In a different winter mood, when brainstorming what to serve as an appetizer for a special evening with friends during the holiday season, we often find ourselves reaching for some combination of winter greens (whether it’s Belgian endives, frisée, curly endive or escarole), a crustacean (crab or shrimp) or smoked fish (usually trout) and radishes. After that, depending on whim and what we find, we might add avocado or celery leaves or stalks, maybe snip in a few chives, grate some Meyer lemon zest — even toss in some tobiko (flying fish roe), for that delightful little pop in the teeth.
Celery, endive and crab salad
These kind of salad never fails to deliver and delight; it always feels light, elegant and festive. And again, it’s easy to put together.
Here’s a pretty basic version — endives, radish, celery and crab meat — to use as is, or as a road map. And a pro tip: If you swap out smoked trout for the crab meat, you can usually pick up everything you need at Trader Joe’s.