Another Boffo Colu Henry Salad

Plus, a crispy garlic chili potion to punch up your non-salad foods!

Pretending I’m Vacationing in Italy Salad, from “Colu Cooks” (Photo by Tara Donne; food by Pearl Jones; props by Rebecca Bartoshesky.)

LUCKY YOU! I have another fundamentally delicious Colu Henry salad for you. As with the crowd-pleasing, supper-worthy Chicories with Tuna, Fennel, and Old-School Italian Dressing, we loved it so much we made it twice in a row this week.

But in addition to this salad today, I couldn’t resist also putting you wise to her Crispy Garlic Chili Oil with Shallots and Fennel Seeds, a potion that you can spoon over eggs or stir into a drab soup or serve with grilled/roasted meats or vegetables. I may try it over ice cream if we don’t eat it all. My only caveat: Remember that you are creating a chili-pepper-infused oil here and that regardless of how friendly and delicious it is, it will not seem so wonderful if you don’t keep your hands away from your eyes.

Cucumbers! Mozzarella! You could stop here and happily devour this salad; keep going because it gets better.

The salad (which you can watch Henry make with her friend Kyle MacLachlan in the Instagram below) is one of those dishes that I plan to keep in my back pocket (a phrase I never used until I got myself a copy of Henry’s Back Pocket Pasta).

I’ll be trotting it out when I need something quick but special to feed people I care about, but I’ll also be feeding it to myself after, say, I have driven an entire hour (of a six-hour trip) in heavy traffic outside of Charlotte, NC, in the rain with some guy in a Tesla dogging my tail and blowing his horn at me to get in the right lane even though both lanes are completely jammed.