This is a very good vinaigrette. Glorious, in fact.
The hot new chef, Samin Nosrat, featured this salad dressing recipe in a recent New York Times Magazine food piece titled “Best Green Salad in the World.” That kind of high praise made me think this recipe was worth a look. So glad I did.
Nosrat is a San Diego-born Persian-American chef whose first book,” Salt Fat Acid Heat,” won the prestigious James Beard General Cookbook of the Year award in 2018. Originally a U.C. Berkeley English major, she fell in love with cooking when she dined at Berkeley’s legendary Chez Panisse. After a stint bussing at the restaurant, Nosrat worked her way into the Chez Panisse kitchen. “Salt Fat Acid Heat,” in fact, is dedicated to Nosrat’s mentor, Chez Panisse’s Alice Waters, and to Nosrat’s mother:”For Alice Waters, who gave me the kitchen, and for Maman, who gave me the world.”
Nosrat is now one of four writers who write the weekly “Eat” column for The New York Times Magazine. In March 2019 she announced that she is working on a new book to be titled “What To Cook.”
Nosrat has a big personality. The Guardian Newspaper described her as “…kooky and endearing, with a laugh that makes a room vibrate and hugs that choke your breath.” You can judge her infectious promotion of cooking for yourself on this link, a brief video introduction to Nosrat and her book:Samin Nosrat and “Salt Fat Acid Heat”.
But I digress. This piece is about the vinaigrette dressing Nosrat discovered at New York’s Via Carota Restaurant. Nosrat rhapsodizes about this vinaigrette, writing “It’s the only vinaigrette I make anymore, and I pour it liberally over everything from boiled asparagus to farro salad to steak and fish and roast chicken. I’m this close to pouring it into a glass and topping it off with sparkling water.”
In her Times column, Nosrat, who confesses that she is not ordinarily a salad obsessive, writes that she makes time whenever she is in New York to dine at Via Carota in order to enjoy their insalata verde– a large green salad with this dressing drizzled between the layers of greens. Sometimes, she says, she goes to the restaurant twice a day just to enjoy the salad. (She calls the salad “otherworldly.”) Via Carota’s salad, by the way, features butter lettuce, romaine, Belgian endive, watercress and frisee.
Via Carota shared this recipe with Nosrat.
Like Nosrat, I’m finding myself becoming a bit obsessive about this vinaigrette.
Not sure about the sparkling water but oh! does it work on a salad of fresh greens!
Save RecipeIngredients
- 1 large shallot (minced)
- 2 T. plus 1 t. aged sherry vinegar
- 1 T. warm water
- 1 C. extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 1/2 t. Dijon mustard
- 1 1/2 t. whole-grain mustard
- 2 t. honey (or to your taste)
- 2 sprigs thyme leaves
- l large clove garlic (finely grated)
- Salt and freshly-ground black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Mince a large shallot and rinse it briefly in cold water (in a strainer). Let the minced shallot sit in the strainer for a few minutes to drain.
- Put minced shallot into a bowl with vinegar and warm water. Let this combination sit for a few minutes and then whisk it together with the oil, mustards, honey, thyme, garlic and some salt and pepper. Taste and adjust seasonings.
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