Fennel and Cucumber Salad
A crunchy mixed vegetable salad given a twist by the addition of bread. Feel free to improvise with whatever is in your garden or kitchen. The key to this salad is not the choice of vegetables but slicing them as thinly as possible. Use a mandoline if you have one.
Recipe information
Yield
makes 4 servings
Ingredients
About 1/4 pound crusty bread (stale is fine), torn into pieces
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
Salt and black pepper to taste
2 cucumbers, peeled and sliced
1 fennel bulb, trimmed and sliced
2 tomatoes, preferably plum, cored and sliced
2 celery stalks, sliced
1 red bell pepper, stemmed, seeded, and sliced
6 radishes, trimmed and sliced
1/2 cup pitted small black olives
8 cornichons, chopped
1 cup chopped fresh basil leaves, optional
Preparation
Step 1
Broil or grill the bread until lightly browned and crunchy, then place in a salad bowl.
Step 2
Whisk together the vinegar, oil, salt, and pepper. Toss the remaining ingredients with the bread and dressing and serve immediately.
The Best Recipes in the World by Mark Bittman. © 2005 by Mark Bittman. Published by Broadway Books. All Rights Reserved.
MARK BITTMAN is the author of the blockbuster The Best Recipes in the World (Broadway, 2005) and the classic bestseller How to Cook Everything, which has sold more than one million copies. He is also the coauthor, with Jean-Georges Vongerichten, of Simple to Spectacular and Jean-Georges: Cooking at Home with a Four-Star Chef. Mr. Bittman is a prolific writer, makes frequent appearances on radio and television, and is the host of The Best Recipes in the World, a 13-part series on public television. He lives in New York and Connecticut.
