RECIPE TITLE "Andalusian Salad Recipe"
Source: The Heritage of Spanish Cooking,
courtesy of Cooking.com

Serves 4 --- easy

In ancient times Mediterranean cultures grew lettuce (documented from AD 500), curly endive, carrots, asparagus, parsley, leeks and garlic and made use of countless wild aromatic herbs to prepare stimulating salads. These were dressed with olive oil, vinegar made from grapes, figs or peaches and salt. In the caliphate of Al-Andalus, the recipes were enriched with green onions (spring onions) and orange and lemon juice. In Arte de Reposteria (1747), Juan de la Mata lists a mindboggling array of ingredients used in salads in the eighteenth century.

  RECIPE INGREDIENTS

1 curly endive, finely shredded
3 1/3 cups olives, pitted
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 tomato, chopped
1 teaspoon fresh tarragon, finely chopped
Salt
1 egg, hardboiled
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
3 1/2 oz tuna in oil, flaked

  RECIPE METHOD

Put the curly endive, olives, onion, garlic, tomato and tarragon in a salad bowl. Add a little salt.

Crush the yolk of the egg in a mortar, then slowly trickle in the oil and vinegar, stirring with the pestle. Pour over the salad.

Chop the eggwhite and sprinkle over the top along with the flaked tuna. Add a little salt. Serve.

Recipe reprinted by permission of Weldon Russell. All rights reserved.