Salad

Eastside Road, August 9, 2011—

GREEN SALAD, OF COURSE: how often do I type that late at night, I wonder. Virtually every day. It was almost the entire meal tonight, along with the last of the pan bagnat. My own lettuce is about ready to cut, but tonight we finished the last of a head we bought a few days ago in town, a nice butter lettuce speckled here and there — it's so nice when you get close to the center of the head. We filled it out with the last of the packaged arugula from the other day. Next week I've got to plant some arugula and some more lettuce!

The dressing was the usual: run a clove of garlic through the press, mash it up with sea salt using a dinner fork, cover it with olive oil and let that stand. At the last minute, whisk in the vinegar — we're still using vinegar from a jar of pickled sour cherries — and toss it all. Remember what the Italians say: four people to make a salad — generous man for the oil, miser for the vinegar, judge for the salt, maniac for tossing.

Rosé, La Ferme Julien (Luberon), 2009