“Bitterness is the most satisfying flavor,” a famous Spanish chef once remarked. As I get older, I find myself agreeing with this sentiment. With every year, I use less and less sugar and honey in my cooking, and I now love all the flavors I used to hate as a young man: black coffee, bitter chocolate, chicories, hoppy beers, grapefruit, even those intensely bitter quinine-flavored aperitifs Europeans love to sip.
Like an interest in bird-watching and an obsession with comfortable shoes, this is a surely a sign of getting older, just as the love for sweet flavors is a sign of youth (though, sadly, many Americans palates never seem to outgrow this youthful phase).
I use a lot of bitter greens in cooking, especially lettuces from the chicory family like the meaty Italian raddichio di treviso and the curly French frisee.
When my talented chef de cuisine at Olivea, Justin Milius, cooked his audition dinner, one of the dishes he made for us was an inventive twist on the bistro classic, Salade Frisee Aux Lardons. This salad is a classic because of its satisfying flavor balance: the bitter taste of frisee and the tartness of the vinegar are balanced by the fat of the bacon and the olive oil and the sweetness and blandness of the poached egg.
Instead of the traditional bacon in the dressing, Justin used pancetta, which because of its slightly fermented flavor, gives a greater complexity to the dressing. He also added a little crunchy, bitter julienned endive to the traditional frisee in the salad.
John Broening cooks at Duo restaurant, .
Endive and Frisee Salad with Pancetta Sage Dressing and Poached Egg
Serves 4.
Ingredients
4 eggs, poached and held in cold water
2 heads Belgian endive, quartered, cored and julienned
2 heads frisee, washed and dried, dark green part trimmed,
For the dressing:
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
6 ounces pancetta diced
1 tablespoon plus one teaspoon sherry vinegar
1 shallot minced
3 leaves fresh sage, chopped
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Directions
Warm a small pot of water on the stove to reheat the eggs. Add the eggs to the water.
Place the endive and frisee in a large mixing bowl.
In a medium saucepan, render the pancetta in the olive oil. Off the heat, add the sherry vinegar, shallots, and sage, plus the salt and pepper.
Toss the greens with the warm dressing. Divide the greens among four plates. With a slotted spoon, remove the warmed eggs from the water and top each salad with a poached egg. Season the egg with a little salt and pepper. Serve immediately.
Note: When Justin made this salad, he added a little chopped parsley and chervil to the dressing in addition to the sage. I’ve omitted them in the interest of streamlining the recipe, but you are certainly free to add them.
