Delicious Mediterranean salad

Ingredients for 1 servings:

• 100 g iceberg lettuce
• 50 g tomatoes
• 1 ml Aceto balsamico Traditional di Modena
• ½ g pepper, freshly ground
• 30 g olives
• 2 g garlic
• 5 ml olive oil
• ¼ g salt
• 5 ml lemon juice
• 1 artichoke heart
• 2 ml soy sauce
• ½ g oregano, shredded
• 30 g mushrooms
• 1 stalk of onion(s) (winter hedge onion)
• ½ g thyme, shredded
• 30 g pointed peppers
• 5 ml truffle oil
• 10 g onion(s)
• ½ g tarragon, shredded

Instructions

Working time approx. 45 minutes; Cooking/baking time approx. 15 minutes; Total time approx. 1 hour

with artichokes and olives

Take a bowl large enough for the salad. Pick the required number of iceberg lettuce leaves, which should be loose and light when purchased, so the inner leaves will also be slightly green. Wash them, then tear them into small pieces, and add them to the bowl. Squeeze on a little lemon juice. Add a pinch of tarragon and mix well. Cut a red bell pepper into strips and remove the seeds and stem. Heat truffle oil in a pan and fry the bell peppers on both sides until they are just beginning to brown. Let them cool, cut into smaller pieces, while you prepare the rest of the salad. Quarter the tomatoes, remove the green tops, and drizzle with a very small amount of balsamic vinegar. If you can’t afford Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale di Modena, use half the amount of regular balsamic vinegar mixed with half the amount of honey instead. Mix the tomatoes with finely chopped onion and pepper. Remove the artichoke hearts from the can and squeeze out the water. In a container, mix with lemon juice, olive oil, and shredded oregano. Remove the olives from the jar, let them dry, and place them in a container with a lid. Squeeze in the olive oil, lemon juice, salt, and a clove of garlic, add some shredded basil and thyme, and mix everything in the container. Clean whole fresh mushrooms and toss them with soy sauce until they look brown, as if they were fried, but not dripping. Alternatively, season the mushrooms with balsamic vinegar and omit the balsamic vinegar from the tomatoes. Chop the remaining parts of a winter hedge onion into small pieces. Add all the ingredients to the lettuce leaves in the bowl and toss gently. The idea is not to evenly distribute the sauces and flavors; each ingredient should retain its own unique flavor. I think this kind of salad is considerably tastier than the usual limp lamb’s lettuce leaves drenched in vinegar. You could also sprinkle it with pan-roasted pine nuts.