Pino Luongo

Salad Greens

Wild greens:
There are some kinds of wild salad greens that grow only in Tuscany as far as I know. They grow everywhere, as do the herbs. Once you know them, you can find them in the fields there. They are also served in restaurants in the spring and fall. The varieties I like most are mesticanza (lamb’s quarters) and rughetta (wild chicory). Rughetta is excellent alone or with tomatoes and a simple dressing of olive oil and lemon. Mesticanza grows on sandy beaches near pine woods. It has hairy, thick leaves, very long and narrow. You can’t eat it alone; it has to be mixed with something else like wild rugola or wild radicchio, but just a small number of the leaves mixed with any other kind of green gives a salad a better taste, texture, and quality.

People think that salad greens only grow out of the ground, but some greens grow spontaneously in all kinds of places. I have seen the women of Montalcino digging with spoons for the greens that grow in the cracks of the medieval walls surrounding their village. The salad they make is the result of their knowledge of local greens, and they blend these greens in a harmonious combination, always adding the surprising, pungent taste of herbs.

Cultivated greens:
There are many varieties of cultivated greens, but most of them are good only for the cows. Romaine? When you finish a salad of that you get up from the table and…Moo!

Favorite salads:
The foundation of most of my salads is rugola. That’s the most prestigious salad green in Italy and the one that complements many other greens. The salads I make most often are:
• rugola and tomatoes, with a dressing of vinegar, olive oil, salt, and pepper
• rugola and thin strips of fennel, with a dressing of lemon, olive oil, salt, and pepper
• rugola by itself, with a dressing of vinegar or lemon, olive oil, salt, and pepper
• rugola, Belgian endive, and radicchio with a red wine vinegar dressing

Salad Dressing
(Condimento Per Insalata)

red wine vinegar (good quality)
salt
black pepper
olive oil

Use about 1 part vinegar to 3 parts olive oil for a sharp taste. Put vinegar in the bottom of a clean wine bottle or jar. Add salt and pepper, and pour the olive oil on top. Shake well. Taste for seasoning before you splash the dressing on a salad. This is my fancy dressing: vinegar, olive oil, salt, pepper and nothing else.

This recipe is from my first cookbook, A Tuscan in the Kitchen.