Salad for a Sunday

It had been a long time since we'd eaten salad greens like frisée (curly endive) or scarole (escarole) instead of batavia (leaf lettuce) or laitue (Boston lettuce). One good way to serve and eat "bitter greens" is as a salade lyonnaise, a specialty of the city of Lyon which includes lardons fumés, croûtons, and egg(s). In this case, I found a nice-looking escarole at the market.

We had about a third of a French baguette «tradition», often called une tradition or even une tradi, left over from the day before. That's perfect for croutons. To be called "traditional" a baguette has to be made with flour that contains no additives whatsoever. The dough cannot be frozen at any point in the process, and the baguette must be made and baked in the boulangerie (bakery) where it is sold. Besides flour, the only ingredients are yeast, water, and salt.

We also had some smoked pork lardons in the refrigerator. Lardons (above) are chunks of pork breast or "belly" (poitrine de porc) and they are essential to French cooking.

They're not traditional, but we also had some leftover sauteed potatoes in the fridge, and I put those in too. The first step in making the salad is to sauté the pork lardons. Then you can sauté the croûtons in the same pan. If there's too much pork fat, spoon some out. If you need more fat in the pan, add some vegetable oil.

As for eggs for the salad, you have several options. Poached eggs are really good, but soft- or hard-boiled eggs will work too. I made neither this time. Instead, I just fried a couple of eggs "sunny-side up" on low heat. (The induction stovetop is great for cooking eggs this way because you can regulate the heat so easily.) Don't fry the eggs until the last minute. The dressed salad greens can wait.

Also, don't put the croutons in the salad until you've already dressed the salad greens. Use a good vinaigrette (vinegar, oil, and Dijon mustard). Toss the salad greens with it, and then put in the other ingredients. You especially don't want the croutons to soak up too much dressing and get soggy.

There you have it. Dressed salad greens (purists will tell you the best greens for this salad are dandelion leaves), crunchy croutons, and smoky bacon. And in my version, some sauteed potatoes. Put the egg on top. When you break the yolk of the egg it mixes with the salad dressing and other ingredients. Some good French cheese (Camembert, Brie, Saint-Nectaire, Roquefort) as a second course wouldn't be bad.