Salads That Can Stand Up to Pizza 🍕—or Stand Alone 🥗
Rather than always riding in the sidecar.
LADY MACBETH AND MACBETH. Cheese and crackers. Simon and Garfunkel. Franks and beans. Heathcliff and Cathy. Truffles and anything you put them in. Bert and Ernie. Lemon and honey. Lucy and Ricky. In so many iconic duos, it’s often the imbalance that makes the relationship compelling.
The same goes for pizza and salad. And despite the fact that I have chosen to devote my remaining years on this planet to the glory of salad, I’m woman enough to accept that it’s a dish that inevitably serves as the codependent one, the straight man, the quiet one, the foil. I won’t even go into how unfair it is that salad is always reduced to the rider in the sidecar, even though it got here long before pizza did.
Because of all the great things to eat in this world, pizza happens to be my second favorite (followed by shrimp cocktail, and any kind of steamed Chinese dumpling or rice noodle rolls, and corn on the cob, just off the top of my head).
So I was extremely excited to hear about a new book arriving April 16 (but available for preorder now) from Alexandra Stafford, titled simply Pizza Night. (Stafford also has a terrific pizza newsletter, Pizza Every Friday.)
I am crazy about this book, and as a once-enthusiastic-but-now-lapsed pizza maker who hasn’t had a pizza stone in over a decade, I can tell you that it’s going to make you want to get really really into making pizza at home if you aren’t already. When I started reading it, I stopped briefly, as if hypnotized, to order a pizza steel (rather than a stone, because that’s what Stafford recommends in the book’s clear and helpful Tools, Ingredients, and Tips for Success section).
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There are 52 different pizza recipes in here, one for every week of the year, all arranged by season, and not a one of them fails to revive my dormant pizza-making instincts. I’m talking Shrimp Pizza with Roasted Lemon Salsa; Hot Italian Sausage and Giardiniera Pizza with Mozzarella; Detroit-Style Pizza for a Crowd, with Pepperoni, Pickled Jalapeños, and Hot Honey; and Roasted Artichoke Pizza with Castelvetrano Olives, Lemon, and Ricotta. Plus, they all look fun and easy to make, which is key when it comes to me preparing anything other than salad these days.
But to be honest, the fact that the book is so enticing is no surprise to me at all. Stafford is one of my favorite food people, whose recipes always deliver.
The big surprise for me was: Even though the book’s cover might lead one to assume salad is going to be an afterthought (despite the subtitle: Deliciously Doable Recipes for Pizza and Salad), there are just as many salads as there are pizzas—and they get just as much loving attention. (In fact, don’t tell Stafford this but in my private thoughts I will henceforth be referring to the book as “Salad Night.”)
Most of the salads, to my mind, are entree-worthy (and not just because I believe that all you really have to do to make a salad an entree is eat a lot of it). Stafford’s salad recipes don’t just complement the pizzas; they also pull off the trick of being the kind you won’t mind making while also focusing on stretching dough or making sure your pie doesn’t slide into the oven or your grill. I was drawn to so many of them, including Garlicky, Spicy Sautéed Escarole, with Olives, Pine Nuts, and Currants; Baby Spinach Salad with Apple, Pine Nuts, and Goat Cheese; Arugula Salad with Prosciutto and Parmesan; Little Gem Salad with Avocado, Scallions, Cucumber, and Green Goddess Dressing; and Beets and Mixed Greens Salad with Golden Raisins and Pistachios.
Not to mention the salads that I have for you today, both of which came out so wonderfully that I didn’t make any of the suggested taste-and-adjustments. The Spring Wedge Salad with Radishes, Egg, and Greek Yogurt Ranch is simple and refreshing—pretty and springy, too. I thought the dressing, which is loaded with a quite bold amount of chopped chives and scallions, would be overpowering. Instead, it’s a damn masterpiece that I could eat like soup.
The other is a recipe from Stafford’s mom, My Mother’s Horiatiki Salad, which breaks traditional Greek-salad rules about leaving the feta in a large block, always using big chunks of vegetables, and that whole green pepper commandment. It’s the dreamiest Greek salad I’ve made in a long, long time. I’d go into how perfectly balanced the flavors and textures are—and how using white balsamic vinegar here is a stroke of genius—but I’d rather you just trust me and make it as soon as possible. It’s perfection.
Speaking of mothers, one of the things I love about the book is how filled it is with family and what a beautiful, evocative voice Stafford has. A passage in her introduction describes how her mother used the promise of pizza as a calming balm when she told 8-year-old Stafford and her sister that there was going to be a divorce:
In my memory, her voice sounded like the adults in a Peanuts cartoon, muffled and muted, an incomprehensible babble. But then, piercing through the prattle, came, “When we move, we’ll have pizza every Friday.”
Those three words— pizza every Friday— washed away every tear, dried up every worry, and provided immediate clarity. Pizza. Every. Friday. Everything would be fine.
I can’t wait for my pizza steel to arrive, because I feel exactly the same way: Pizza (especially with salad) makes everything okay. In the meantime, I’ll be making more of the salads from this book.
By the way, I’m giving you the recipes from Pizza Night verbatim, aside from a couple of minor adjustments to reflect where they’re appearing (meaning here).
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*RECIPE: Alexandra Stafford’s Mother’s Horiatiki Salad, from Pizza Night
Serves 4
Alexandra Stafford’s Recipe Note: If you were to order a horiatiki salad in Greece, it wouldn’t look like this. Rather, it would be an arrangement of large chunks of tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers, along with olives and sliced red onion. A slab of feta, seasoned with oregano, would sit atop the vegetables, and it would all be drizzled lightly with olive oil and red wine vinegar. Even though I love this traditional version, I love my mother’s variation even more. Hers is made with a similar mix of vegetables that are chopped a touch smaller and dressed a bit heavier. She adds capers for a nice textural pop and dill, too. This is one of the salads I prepare most often throughout the summer. The sweet mix of tomatoes and peppers make it a perfect match for the lemony pizza and so many others in this chapter, namely the Summer Squash and Squash Blossom Pizza and the Grilled Ortolona Pizza with Zucchini, Eggplant, and Olives.
3 cups cherry tomatoes, halved
2 medium cucumbers, peeled and cut into 1- inch pieces (about 2 cups)
1 cup finely sliced red onion
1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced (about 1 cup)
Kosher salt or flaky sea salt
3 tablespoons extra- virgin olive oil, plus more to taste
3 tablespoons white balsamic vinegar, plus more to taste
½ cup kalamata olives
2 tablespoons capers, drained
2 tablespoons loosely packed fresh dill fronds
A big pinch of dried oregano, preferably Greek or Sicilian, to taste
4 ounces feta cheese, preferably in brine, sliced into thin slabs
In a large bowl, combine the tomatoes, cucumbers, onion, and bell pepper. Season with a big pinch of salt and toss to combine. Add the olive oil, vinegar, olives, capers, dill, and oregano. Toss again. Taste and adjust with more salt if needed. Add more olive oil or more vinegar, depending on whether you want it sharper or milder. When the salad tastes balanced, add the feta and gently toss one last time.
*RECIPE: Spring Wedge Salad with Radishes, Egg, and Greek Yogurt Ranch, from Pizza Night
Serves 4
Alexandra Stafford’s Recipe Note: Having grown up with a mother who favored oil-and-vinegar-based dressings and who never stocked bottles of ranch or blue cheese dressing, I came to appreciate these sorts of dressings much later in life, often with pizza and wings by my side. Though today I still love a rich, creamy dressing, I can’t ignore my mother’s influence, and I do appreciate lightened-up versions, this Greek yogurt ranch being a prime example. It’s bright with herbs and fresh lemon juice, and it’s a perfect match for all the fixin’s here: radishes, snow peas, and eggs. With a little less water, it makes a great dip for veggies, too.
1 head iceberg lettuce (about 1½ pounds), cut into 8 wedges
Flaky sea salt or kosher salt
2 radishes, thinly sliced on a mandoline
2 ounces snow peas, thinly sliced on the bias
½ cup Greek Yogurt Ranch Dressing (recipe follows), plus more for serving
4 Hard-Boiled Eggs (recipe follows), peeled and finely chopped
4 scallions, finely sliced
Freshly ground black pepper
Set the iceberg wedges on a large platter and season them on both sides with some sea salt. Arrange them wedge-edge up. Scatter the radish slices and snow peas over the wedges. Drizzle the dressing evenly over the top, being sure to dress each wedge generously—use more dressing as needed. Scatter the chopped eggs all around, along with the scallions. Season with pepper to taste. Pass more dressing on the side for serving
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Greek Yogurt Ranch Dressing
Makes 1½ cups
1 cup whole-milk Greek yogurt
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 garlic clove, minced
½ teaspoon honey
1 to 1½ teaspoons kosher salt, plus more to taste
Freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons minced fresh dill
⅓ cup chopped fresh chives
⅓ cup minced scallions (3 to 4 scallions)
4 tablespoons water
In a medium bowl, whisk together the yogurt, lemon juice, garlic, honey, 1 teaspoon salt, and pepper to taste. Whisk in the dill, chives, and scallions. Whisk in 2 tablespoons of the water. Taste and adjust with more salt and/or pepper. Whisk in the remaining 2 tablespoons water to thin the dressing if needed. Store in the fridge for up to 1 week.
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Hard-Boiled Eggs
Makes 4 eggs
4 large eggs
Set up a bowl (large enough to submerge the eggs) with ice and water. Place a steamer basket in a pot. Fill the pot with 1 inch of water, cover, and bring to a simmer over high heat. Uncover, carefully place the eggs in the steamer basket, cover, and steam for 10 minutes. Carefully transfer the steamed eggs to the ice bath.
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Is there something in these salads that encourages the body to produce endorphins? Why else would I feel so good EVEN AFTER JUST READING ABOUT THEM?
As always, I lol'd multiple times while reading this, but most loudly about you referring to the book as "Salad Night" moving forward — I'm down with that! I adore you and am so grateful for all of this. To have salads featured in the DOS is the ultimate dream. Thank you Emily!!