Salads
At home it was never missing. I am not speaking of pasta, which, it is true, was always present. But the dish of vegetables which in various forms -from the green to the one with tomatoes and mozzarella, or others with potatoes or other combinations- always accompanied our meals at the centre of the table like a king. The salad. “L’insalata”.
I remember with a sad smile of regret, because he is not here anymore, my uncle Max, Massimo. Engineer, passionate about all the sciences, from astronomy to mineralogy, botany and many others, he was a walking encyclopaedia that I loved to listen to and spend time with. He took me around the grounds and gardens explaining me plants and flowers. And every now and then stopping he said to me, “…and this is a anethum graveolens (dill, quoting the classification in Latin from Linnaeus), from the family of Umbelliferae. It is growing wild but you can use for fish dishes, potato salads or soups. From the same family you have this other plant” and he pointed at a wild fennel; “this is a foeniculum vulgare, from the parsley branch. See its feathery leaves and yellow flowers. Its seeds have culinary use”. After theory he usually behaved more practical and we used to collect some plants and leaves that would be useful for preparing a meal. Therefore he took some bay leaves and wild chives, marsh mallows, valerian, chervils, which he took care that would not be confused with poisonous hemlock (!), and a lot of other greens.
With my imagination, when ancient Romans in Italy, and Celts all over Europe in the past used to walk the same fields, I thought my uncle could be a druid or some wise botanic scientist of that time. He was the one who, thanks to his wide culture and interests, made me feel always curious and try a wide range of greens for salads, from sprouts to leaves, grains, seeds, spices, vegetables, fruits and herbs in combination or without other ingredients and sauces.
.As I always like to combine my gastronomy topics with other hopefully useful cultural, sociological or anecdotical information, it is interesting to know that since man was born as a fruit-eating (frugivorous), and you can see also by the shape of its teeth, he used to eating mainly leaves, berries and seeds since prehistoric times. The arrival of the ice-age with the decrease of vegetables and the transition to the meat diet then changed many eating habits, which still cause problems to a digestive system still used mainly to vegetables.
Etymologically, the key ingredient of salad, and the reason for its getting its name, is the dressing, especially the salt. The Romans were enthusiastic eaters of salads, many of their differing hardly at all from present-day ones -a simple selection of raw vegetables- and they always used a dressing of some sort: oil, vinegar, and often brine. And hence the name salad, which comes from Vulgar Latin Herba salata, literally ‘salted herb’“, or standing for ‘salted things‘. The word turns up in Old French as salade and then in late 14th century English as salad or sallet.” As we can find in Oxford English Dictionary.
We have clear references to the use of raw herbs and leaves to make a dish together (generally defined as mixed greens with dressing) by various gastronomic Latin authors (Apicius, Columella, etc …) of Ancient Rome. The Mediterranean, with its warm, but also dry, climate allows the growth and a rich variety of plants, as well as keeping storage for a certain period of dishes with vegetables that in other parts of the globe, wetter and / or colder, was not possible, often making it necessary to cook the vegetables for health reasons, like in most of Asia, for instance. Olive oil, used as fuel for lamps at the beginning, then alimentary processed, salt, and vinegar, of which the Romans were crazy (much to drink it mixed with water, see the reference during the crucifixion of Jesus in the Bible), accompanied this dish, along with the spices that the rich could afford by Arab traders or from the Roman ships coming from Alexandria after trading with India.
Furthermore the medical practitioners suggested eating raw vegetables as an important support to daily diet and health. Hippocrates and Galen believed that raw vegetables easily slipped through the system and did not create obstructions for what followed; therefore they should be served first. Others reported that the vinegar in the dressing destroyed the taste of the wine; therefore they should be served last. This debate has continued ever since… But shows how much important the salad was for the daily diet of Ancient Romans.
As there didn’t exist a lot of vegetables yet, brought from Colombo after his travels in the Americas, especially tomatoes, greens and salads were generally accompanied by cheese and herbs.
With the fall of Rome, salads were less important in Western Europe, although raw vegetables and fruit were eaten on fast days and as medicinal correctives. They remained a feature of Byzantine cookery and re-entered the European menu via medieval Spain and Renaissance Italy.
So, even though at first the word “salade” later referred to fresh-cooked greens of raw vegetables prepared and pickled in the Roman manner in vinegar or salt, as time progressed, salads became more complicated. Recipes varied according to place and time. Dinner salads, as we know them today, were popular with Renaissance folks. Composed salads assembled with layers of ingredients were enjoyed in the 18th century.
Nowadays salad can be one of the simplest or most difficult dishes to be prepared. Especially as it needs creativity and fantasy in preparing or inventing it. Looking, dressing and even chopping is important, as a la julienne; smaller and bigger slices or pieces give a different texture to the dish. It can be an appetizer, a main dish, or a side dish accompanying the main one.
The most important salad dishes usually refer to green salad, which is mostly composed by different kind of lettuce (iceberg, the Roman cappuccina, ricciola, etc…) and tasteful leaves, like rocket and chicory. In Italy some species of vegetables have even obtained the protection of the European Union, the P.A.T. (traditional agro-alimentary Italian products) or the I.G.P. (geographical protected denomination) like the Cicoria di Catalogna Frastagliata of Gaeta, the one of Chioggia, the Radicchio Rosso of Treviso, or the Radicchio Variegato di Castelfranco.
Mixed salads are still mainly green, but with tomatoes, carrots, celery, onions, olives, cucumber, radishes, capsicum and other vegetables, sprouts and even flowers, seeds or grains. From this “branch of salad we have the Balkan salads, which contain the most important cheese from the Country they take their name from, like Feta and Goat Yogurt for Greece, Kajmak for Serbia, or Mozzarella (Caprese salad) or Parmigiano for Italy. In Eastern Europe you can have plenty of turnips and beets as well.
Then there are other varieties like the potato ones (the one called in Italy “Russian Salad” and in Germany “Italian Salad”, with boiled potatoes, peas, carrots, French beans, mayonnaise, cappers, or just mayonnaise and potatoes in its easiest version), the pasta ones, very fresh and nice dish for Summer, together with the rice ones, which are a mix of the above carbohydrates with vegetables and cheese. Tuna salads and egg salads (like Nizzarda) complete this branch, known as “bound” salads as well.
Also cereals, pulses and beans salads are interesting mix of different vegetables with chickpeas, beans, broad beans, and lupins. You can also have the chicken (the Caesar salad for instance) salad or the seafood salad, while it is traditional to have the “Insalata di rinforzo”, or reinforcement salad with pickles, for Christmas in South of Italy.
Modern Vegan concept opens to a wide variety of natural raw ingredients, mostly including seeds, fruits (tomato itself is a fruit, did you know it?) and sprouts.
Whatever is your favourite, I would always suggest you to use the best fresh ingredients and extra virgin olive oil, wash it very well, not just on running water but also keeping for at least 10 minutes in a basin (as most of pesticides are water soluble and need to stay soaked under water), prepare it before serving –except for the ones which can stay in the fridge overnight, like rice, pasta, potatoes and pulses salads- and keep them in the fridge after eating. Salads waste easily and vinegar, salt and oil help keeping longer.
The salads go wonderfully well with all climates and seasons, but especially with warm weather and the summer, for the intake of all the vitamins and minerals (Phosphorus, Calcium) that give our diet. Therefore I think it will be nice if I can follow my article with some interesting recipes, one of them dedicated to Singapore with Mango taste!
And, just to remind you the sense of this, don’t forget this one among the many Italian proverbs referring to salad: “A ben condire l’insalata ci vuole un avaro per l’aceto, un giusto per il sale e uno strambo per l’olio”: in order to dress the salad at its best you need a miser for vinegar, a right for the salt and a weirdo for the oil. And I would make it even better with my personal adding: “E un pazzo per mescolare”! A crazy for mix it all!
SERBIAN SALAD
Serbian salad is a vegetable salad, usually served during summer with roast meat and other dishes. It is made from diced fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, onions and grated feta, usually seasoned with olive oil, salt and commonly feferon – a local hot pepper similar to cayenne pepper. You can have different versions, like “Shopska”, with creamy kajmak and green leaves. It is so present in a Serbian cuisine, from early spring until late fall, that all the other salads in Serbian cuisine are unmatched with this one.
Serves 4 Prep 30 min – EASY
Ingredients:
500 g tomatoes,
150 g onions (young or mature)
200 g cucumbers,
1 hot pepper,
A bunch of parsley or onion springs
80 g extra virgin olive oil,
Salt to taste
Directions:
- Clean and cut onions. If it is a mature onion, slice into strips, if the onion is young – cut into rings. Wash sliced mature onions. If necessary, to remove the bitterness.
- Take cucumbers: wash, peel and cut into rings or half rings. Wash tomatoes (choose only healthy, hard ones) and cut into pieces that are suitable for a fork prick. Cut peppers into thin strips.
- Combine all with onions, add salt to taste and pour oil. Stir carefully to keep the whole tomato pieces.
- Pour into a salad bowl and sprinkle finely chopped parsley or onion springs.
Tips:
For some variants you might prepare one day in advance a dressing with 2/3 cup olive oil, 1/3 cup red wine vinegar, 5 garlic cloves, quartered, ½ teaspoon dried basil, ½ teaspoon dried thyme, ½ teaspoon dried oregano, ½ teaspoon dried marjoram, fresh ground black pepper. When preparing the salad, remove the garlic from dressing and discard. Let the flavours meld with the tomatoes, pepper, onions and cucumber for at least one hour with the sauce.
With Shopska you can add lettuce (chopped in small parts) and creamy kajmak instead of feta, then mix all together.
If you do not like hot peppers, you can substitute it with a regular sweet pepper. also cut into thin strips.
Per Serving XXX kcals, protein XXXg, carbs XXXg, fat XXXg, sat fat XXXg, fiber XXXg, sugar XXXg, salt XXXg
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TZATZIKI SALAD
Even though this recipe is mostly under the sauce version and cannot be defined as a salad, you can increase cucumbers and make it a fresh dish to accompany your meat or first meal. Tzatziki is made of strained yogurt (usually from sheep or goat milk) mixed with cucumbers, garlic, salt, olive oil, and sometimes lemon juice, and dill or mint or parsley. It is always served cold. While in Greece and Turkey the dish is usually served as an accompaniment, in other places tzatziki is often served with bread (loaf or pita) as part of the first course of a meal. The etymology is Turkish, but is renowned as a plate of Greek gastronomy.
Serves 4 Prep 20 min – EASY
Ingredients:
1 cucumber (2 if more like salad version)
5-8 garlic cloves (according to the grade of spiciness)
500 gr yogurt (better if goat yogurt)
10 leaves of mint
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Salt to taste
Directions:
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Clean and cut the cucumbers. You can discard the skin and seeds, or keep them, as I do, according to your liking. Do the same with the garlic. Wash the mint leaves.
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Put it all in a blender with the yogurt (if you want a more liquid one, otherwise blend them apart then mix to the yogurt and stir)
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Serve fresh with some olive oil on the top.
Tips:
You can have a more liquid or more solid recipe. Just blend yogurt and the other ingredients all together, or stir apart and add one more sliced cucumber, without seeds, if more consistent.
You can add lemon juice, dill, parsley as optional together with the mint, or as a topping.
Per Serving XXX kcals, protein XXXg, carbs XXXg, fat XXXg, sat fat XXXg, fiber XXXg, sugar XXXg, salt XXXg
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VEGAN SINGAPORE SALAD
This is a recipe which I could improve once I settled down in Singapore. The taste of mango and avocado, accompanied by the texture of red cabbage and broccoli, mixed together with olive oil and kiwi, in my opinion make it a flavour of the fusion between South East Asia and Europe. You must try it.
Serves 4 Prep 30 min – EASY
Ingredients:
¼ red cabbage/lettuce
1 broccoli brunch
2 kiwis
1 avocado
1 mango
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Salt to taste, black pepper
Directions:
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Wash the vegetables. Cut the broccoli and separate the flowers from the brunch-parts. Clean and peel kiwis and avocado and chop in small pieces. Chop red cabbage and broccoli flowers in small pieces. Peel the mango.
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Blend the mango with a bit of water and the chopped brunches of the broccoli into a sauce.
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Put together in a bowl the chopped broccoli leaves, red cabbage, kiwis and avocado and mix with the mango-broccoli sauce.
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Add salt, pepper and extra virgin olive oil according to your taste.
Tips:
You must wash all the vegetables, especially broccoli, with care. Broccoli -due to the persistence of pesticides- have better be washed three times. Keep all the raw vegetables for 10 minutes in a basin with water, and then clean under running water.
It is not necessary to put together broccoli and red cabbage, although these vegetables give a better consistency and contrast to the sauce and the fruits. You can use one of them, increasing its quantity.
Don’t exceed with black pepper. It is difficult for our liver to metabolize it.
Per Serving XXX kcals, protein XXXg, carbs XXXg, fat XXXg, sat fat XXXg, fiber XXXg, sugar XXXg, salt XXXg
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ITALIAN PASTA SALAD
The pasta salad is a fresh summer dish, easy to prepare in advance and is particularly suitable for picnic, or buffet dinners on the beach. The ingredients vary according to taste, although almost always include tomatoes or mozzarella. The pasta salad is therefore suitable to all tastes.
Serves 4 Prep 30 min – EASY
Ingredients:
400 gr. pasta (farfalle or butterflies, and fusilli or penne match perfectly)
250 gr. di cherry tomatoes
200 gr. tuna
200 gr. mozzarella
40 gr. olives
Basil, pepper
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Directions:
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Boil and cook pasta in salty water, and take it out just right.
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Wash cherry tomatoes and cut in small pieces. Cut the olives in small circles. Chop basil.
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Take away water from mozzarella and slice in little cubes. Dry tuna and put in a bowl, pressing it lightly with a fork and make it smoother.
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Put chopped cherry tomatoes, mozzarella, basil, and olives to the tuna, then add a bit of extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper, if you like.
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Combine all with pasta and stir, making cool to taste before serving.
Tips:
The best pasta for pasta salad is pasta corta (short types), like farfalle or butterflies, fusilli, penne.
Leave a few whole leaves of basil for garnishing the dish.
Per Serving XXX kcals, protein XXXg, carbs XXXg, fat XXXg, sat fat XXXg, fiber XXXg, sugar XXXg, salt XXXg
Fabrizio Righi is an Italian manager who settled down in Singapore and worked for International Organization Caritas Network in Humanitarian Emergency Field in Eastern Europe for many years in the Emergency, Social, Health (including Nutrition), Education, and Development fields. He worked 16 years all over Europe and knows 9 languages and the cuisines of his Continent. His favourite forte is Italian Cuisine, which he learned from his grandmother Maria Stella and which loves to share with his Community, enriched by the sound and deep background of European culinary traditions where he worked abroad and by the Asian spices and herbs from the region where he settled down last. He is also a passionate of ancient recipes from the Ancient Romans and Greeks, and of cultural gastronomy with a lot of information that you will hardly find everywhere else. He participated in the “Singapore Culinary Journey” 2013. You can find Fabrizio with his languages, culture and cuisine posts on https://www.facebook.com/?ref=tn_tnmn#!/groups/124257721050152/
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