Campanian kitchen · Basics
Come si condisce l'insalata: the dressing that is not a dressing
There is no Italian word for 'salad dressing' because in Italy, the ingredients listed below are not a preparation — they are the natural state of a salad.
When I first arrived in the United States, I was confused by the bottled dressing aisle in the supermarket. Ranch, Thousand Island, Caesar, balsamic vinaigrette, honey mustard. The bottles described themselves as flavors, as if a salad needed to taste like something other than itself. In Italy, there is no such aisle. There is olive oil. There is salt. There is lemon or wine vinegar. These are not condiments — they are the completion of the vegetable.
Salad in a Campanian household is not a starter. It is a second course — contorno — served after pasta, before fruit. The function is digestive as much as it is pleasurable. A salad dressed in olive oil and lemon, eaten at the end of a pasta meal, was described in our house as washing your mouth and helping you digest. The science has things to say about this that are more nuanced but not entirely wrong.
The quality of the olive oil is the recipe. Everything else is present to support it.
A word from the lab
Extra-virgin olive oil contributes oleic acid — the monounsaturated fat associated with cardiovascular health in the Mediterranean diet — and polyphenols including oleocanthal, which inhibits the same inflammatory enzyme (COX-2) as ibuprofen, though at higher doses than a salad provides. Lemon juice supplies vitamin C, which enhances the absorption of non-heme iron from plant foods in the salad — particularly relevant if the salad contains dark leafy greens. The fat-soluble vitamins in the vegetables (A, E, K) are bioavailable only in the presence of dietary fat — which the olive oil provides. The traditional Italian practice of eating a dressed salad as a final course appears, from a nutritional standpoint, to be well-calibrated.
This is less a recipe than a principle. Apply it to whatever salad greens you have.
Ingredients · serves 2–3
Method
Wash and dry the greens thoroughly. Wet greens will not hold the dressing.
Place in a bowl.
Drizzle with olive oil. Season with salt.
Add lemon juice or vinegar.
Toss well — every leaf should be lightly coated, not swimming. Serve immediately.
A dressed salad waits for no one. Eat it now.
Buon appetito.