Many recipe discoveries come from friends who contribute ingredients or share new methods in the kitchen. My friend Rebecca Terrell, an accomplished chef and baker, made this recipe for Egg Ribbon and Bacon Salad possible. If you crave bacon and eggs but struggle to find ways to add healthy vegetables to your breakfast, add this recipe to your repertoire .
When Rebecca and her husband Eric came to dinner a few nights ago, she offered to bring a green salad to pair with Paul’s beef stew. Rebecca and Eric helped a friend harvest lettuce greens from his garden before a hard freeze. The bountiful harvest proved too much for them to eat by themselves, so they brought extra lettuce to share. Rebecca made a fresh dressing with a crushed garlic clove, kosher salt, lemon juice, extra virgin olive oil, and cracked black pepper to go with the salad.
Garlic! I make fresh vinaigrettes all the time for green salads, but I usually use a minced shallot or scallions. Vinegar or citrus juice softens and sweetens raw onion when allowed to sit for several minutes. The same method applied to garlic creates a richly-flavored dressing for salad. Many thanks to Rebecca for imparting one of her kitchen secrets to me. I use her technique below.
For best results in this recipe, use Bibb or butter lettuce, escarole, arugula, frisee, or a combination of the above with a few bitter leaves of radicchio or treviso thrown in for color and complexity.
Egg Ribbon and Bacon Salad
Ingredients:
- 1 clove garlic
- 1/4 tsp kosher salt
- 1 tbsp white wine vinegar
- 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tsp Dijon mustard
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 3 eggs
- 2 tbsp cold water
- Dash of salt and a few grinds of black pepper
- 1/4 tsp smoked paprika
- Olive oil cooking spray
- 6-8 cups leafy lettuce greens, rinsed and chilled
- 2 radishes, thinly sliced (with a mandolin if you have one)
- 2 scallions, chopped
- 6 strips of bacon, thick slice, cooked and crumbled
- 3 oz parmesan cheese, shaved with a vegetable peeler
Directions:
- Crush the garlic and kosher salt with a fork in a large sturdy wooden salad bowl (you can also do this with mortar and pestle and transfer to another large bowl). Add ingredients from vinegar to black pepper. Whisk thoroughly.
- Beat eggs together with water, salt, pepper, and smoked paprika.
- Warm large skillet with cooking spray to medium heat setting. Pour 1/3 of beaten eggs into skillet. Rotate skillet to maximize coverage in the bottom of the skillet. Loosen edges of the eggs in skillet with spatula. Before the top surface of the eggs begins to dry, flip egg crepe onto a large cutting board. Repeat the above twice for remaining egg mixture. Be sure to flip each crepe onto the previous crepe.
- Re-whisk dressing in bowl. Toss in lettuce, lettuce, radish, scallions, and bacon until mixed thoroughly.
- Return to cutting board. Gently roll all three crepes as tightly as you can from one edge to the other edge. Slice rolled egg crepes into half-inch ribbons. Gently unroll the ribbons into the salad bowl and toss into greens with your bare hands.
- Gently place tossed salad onto chilled plates. Add shaved parmesan to each plate and serve with a chardonnay or champagne.
Place at the Table 
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