Why does everyone keep talking about this chopped salad?
It started making waves in 2006 when Nancy Silverton put it on the menu at Pizzeria Mozza in Los Angeles. Thirteen years later, Food52 community members are still writing to me to tell me how genius it is. It even, briefly, stormed Sweetgreen fast-casual counters nationwide last year.
Not since Caesar Cardini has a restaurant salad had such good branding. On the Pizzeria Mozza menu, it's Nancy's Chopped Salad—even though ostensibly most other dishes on the menu are also Nancy's. When I asked Silverton over the phone if she's made any changes since codifying her recipe in The Mozza Cookbook in 2011, she replies, "Nancy's Chopped Salad will always be that recipe. That's a recipe that needs no fiddling."
So what makes it tick? Or rather, what in it makes us tick? Is it the tang, the crunch, the color? The leather-and-lace dance of opposites like bitter radicchio and sweet iceberg? The fact that it's just riddled with crowd favorites like salami, salty cheese, and chickpeas, the darling of the canned bean aisle? Is it, as many viral recipes often begin, because Deb Perelman at Smitten Kitchen wrote about it one time?
All of those things have certainly helped, but none are so powerful a wedge in our brains as nostalgia, plus Silverton's cheffy tricks to make it even better than you remember. "It's supposed to remind people of my generation of that antipasti plate that they had at Italian-American restaurants," Silverton told me. The one with the salami, the cheese, the spicy pepperoncini.
Or as Perelman wrote, "If you grew up eating Good Seasons 'Italian' dressing from the seasonings packet, you're going to have something of a Proustian moment (but so much better)."
Perhaps the crispest takeaway here is her powerhouse dressing, with red wine vinegar and garlic and enough dried oregano that you'll think it's a mistake (1). Silverton even marinates the oregano together with the garlic, acid, and salt for five minutes to help the herb travel further, before whisking in the olive oil.
But beyond this super-powered memory-box dressing, there are a few other thoughtful tricks Silverton's been honing since the 1970s that cement this salad's icon status:
- She lightly salts the tomatoes on their own first, so they taste riper and more tomatoey. "When I'm giving a cooking demonstration, I always talk about the need to layer food with seasoning as you go," Silverton told me. "It makes a difference in the end."
- She brings in two different types of garlic—a mellow smashed clove and potent grated one. Squashing that extra clove adds another layer of flavor without piling on the raw garlic.
- She de-layers and slices the onion (she calls this "petaling"), then washes the funk away with ice water so all that's left are pert, sweet curls.
- She finishes this salad, like all others, not just with salt to taste but also lemon(so the oregano vinaigrette recipe that looks light on acid flips to bright and balanced at the end).
Thirteen years in, the good branding doesn't show any signs of slowing. Along with Pizzeria Mozza's famed Butterscotch Budino (2), Silverton told me, "I can't tell you how many times people have said, 'I was just at a restaurant in Minnesota and they had Nancy's Chopped Salad!'"
Ingredients
FOR THE VINAIGRETTE
- 2 1/2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
- 2 tablespoons dried oregano
- Freshly squeezed juice from 1/2 lemon (1 tablespoon), or more to taste
- 2 medium cloves garlic, 1 smashed flat and 1 grated
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more to taste
- 1 1/2 cups extra-virgin olive oil
- FOR THE SALAD
- 1/2 small red onion, cut in half from top to bottom
- 1 head (22 ounces) iceberg lettuce
- 1 head (11 ounces) radicchio
- 1 pint small, sweet cherry tomatoes, such as Sun Golds or Sweet 100s, cut into quarters
- Kosher salt
- 1 1/2 cups no-salt-added chickpeas, drained
- 1/4 pound aged provolone, cut into 1/8-inch-thick slices, then cut into 1/4-inch-wide strips
- 1/4 pound Genoa salami, cut into 1/8-inch-thick slices, then cut into 1/4-inch-wide strips
- 5 pepperoncini (stems discarded), cut into thin slices (about 1/4 cup)
- Freshly squeezed juice from 1/2 lemon (1 tablespoon), or more to taste
- Dried oregano (preferably Sicilian oregano on the branch), for sprinkling
Directions
- FOR THE VINAIGRETTE: Whisk together the vinegar, oregano, lemon juice, the smashed garlic and grated garlic and the salt and pepper in a medium bowl. Let the mixture rest for 5 minutes (to marinate the oregano). Add the oil in a slow, steady stream, whisking constantly to form an emulsified vinaigrette. Taste for seasoning, and add salt or lemon juice as needed. The yield is a generous 1 1/2 cups; you'll use up to 1/2 cup for this salad, and the remainder can be refrigerated for another use (up to 3 days).
- FOR THE SALAD: Separate the layers of the onion and stack two or three layers on top of one another, then cut them lengthwise into 1/16-inch-wide strips. Repeat with the remaining onion layers. Place the onion in a small bowl of ice water to sit while you prepare the rest of the ingredients. Drain the onion and pat dry with paper towels before adding to the salad.
- Cut the iceberg lettuce in half through the core. Remove and discard the outer leaves, and discard the core. Separate the lettuce leaves, stack two or three leaves on top of one another, then cut them lengthwise into 1/4-inch-wide strips. Repeat with the remaining leaves; thinly slice the radicchio in the same way. Cut the tomatoes in half, season them with salt to taste, and toss gently.
- Combine the lettuce, radicchio, tomatoes, chickpeas, provolone, salami, peperoncini and onion in a large, wide bowl. Season with salt to taste, and toss to thoroughly combine. Drizzle 6 tablespoons of the vinaigrette over the salad, then sprinkle with the lemon juice; toss gently to coat the salad evenly. Taste, and add the remaining 2 tablespoons of the vinaigrette, plus salt and/or lemon juice as needed.
- Transfer the salad to a large platter or divide it among individual plates, piling it like a mountain. Sprinkle the dried oregano leaves on top and serve.
(1) Silverton says with this much oregano, be sure to get the good stuff from Penzey's or another store that specializes in dried herbs.
(2) Were you wondering if that Butterscotch Budino is in Genius Desserts? Of course it is.
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