Dinner Party Salad · Cooking Notebook

This is the salad I make when people are coming round. It’s incredibly basic and easy to make: three good ingredients and a proper house dressing, assembled with a bit of care. It goes with roast chicken, with porchetta or with a barbecue. Buy ripe tomatoes that actually smell of tomato because they’re a massive part of the salad.

Visual

2 heads butter lettuce	tear into large pieces, wash and dry thoroughly	toss gently with half the dressing	layer with the tomatoes and their juices, spooning over the rest of the dressing	finish with Maldon and pepper, serve immediately
6 tbsp extra virgin olive oil	make the house dressing
2 tbsp sherry vinegar
1 large pinch Maldon sea salt
A generous grind of black pepper
500g heritage tomatoes	cut into irregular chunks, salt and macerate for 10 minutes
2 ripe avocados	halve and slice just before serving

Ingredients

500g heritage tomatoes, a mix of sizes and colours
2 heads of butter lettuce
2 ripe avocados
1 batch of house dressing
Maldon sea salt and black pepper to finish

Method

Make the house dressing recipe
Cut the tomatoes into irregular chunks and wedges, season with a pinch of Maldon and leave them to macerate for 10 minutes so the salt draws out their juices
Separate the lettuce into leaves, tearing the larger ones, then wash and dry them thoroughly
Halve, stone and thickly slice the avocados last so they don’t brown
Toss the leaves gently with half the dressing using your hands
Layer the leaves, tomatoes (and their juices) and avocado on a large platter, spooning the remaining dressing over as you go
Finish with a final pinch of Maldon and a grind of pepper, and serve immediately

Notes

Dry the lettuce properly. Dressing slides straight off wet leaves and pools in the bottom of the bowl, which is how salads end up bland and soggy at the same time. A clean tea towel works well.

Macerating the tomatoes in salt ahead of time is doing two jobs: it seasons them through and the juices they release become part of the dressing on the platter.

Dress it at the last possible moment. Butter lettuce is delicate and starts wilting the second the acid hits it, so assemble the platter when everyone is already sitting down.