Italian Salad

I posted about this salad a year ago, but I really think it warrants another mention since this week's CSA included both radicchio and iceberg. Plus, I didn't include the recipe in the original post and I have made a few key modifications. Also! It's amazing!

This recipe is adapted from Smitten Kitchen, my most reliable source of great recipes and ideas. It's a salad that works great as a meal since it includes meat, cheese, chickpeas, and other hearty components, but I also serve it for dinner parties alongside other dishes.

Iceberg really shines here, providing the necessary mild flavor, crunch, and juiciness (due to its water content) to balance out the strong textures and flavors throughout the rest of the dish.

The radicchio from the CSA is so incredibly beautiful, as you can see in the first photo. It's a loose head with a green and white base and beautiful purple flecks. Radicchio is supposed to be bitter, but I appreciate that this radicchio is somewhat less bitter from what I have experienced elsewhere. It has a somewhat lighter texture, too. All in all, it makes for a very balanced salad.

Italian Salad
Adapted from here

Ingredients
Dressing
4 cloves garlic
1 scant tbsp. dried oregano
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ground black pepper
2 tbsp. lemon juice
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
Salad
1 (15-oz) can chickpeas, drained
1 small (or 1/2 medium or 1/4 large) red onion, peeled and sliced into paper-thin rings
1/2 pound provolone, sliced 1/8-inch thick and cut into 1/4-inch ribbons (I used pre-sliced for convenience)
1/2 pound salami, peeled, sliced 1/8-inch thick and then cut into 1/4-inch ribbons (again, I use pre-sliced)
4 medium or 8 small pickled pepperoncini, sliced into rings
1 1/2 pounds cherry or grape tomatoes, cut in halves in quarters
1/2 tsp. salt
1 head iceberg lettuce, cored and cut into 1/2-inch ribbons
1 head radicchio, cored and cut into 1/2-inch ribbons

Directions
Roughly chop the garlic, then mash in a mortar and pestle with the oregano, salt, and pepper. Mix the oregano paste with the lemon juice and vinegar in a jar (my preference so I don't have to toss the whole salad right away since this makes a lot) or in your salad bowl. Add the oil and shake/mix until combined.

Mix the tomatoes with the 1/2 tsp. salt and set aside.

Gently fold the dressing (leaving some out if your heads of lettuce or radicchio are small) into the the chickpeas, red onion, provolone salami, and pepperoncini.

When ready to serve, add the tomatoes, lettuce, and radicchio to the salad bowl and toss to combine. Taste and add additional dressing if needed (if you set some aside). As you can see above, I added the tomatoes last, but there's no need to.

Note: As I alluded to above, I like to set aside half the dressing, greens, tomatoes, and chickpea/meat/cheese mixture for leftovers since this salad gets soggy in the fridge and it makes a ton. I would say it makes enough for at least 5 meal-sized salads.