spring tonic greens with warm pancetta vinaigrette
dandelion season
Growing up in a Pennsylvania Dutch family, holiday meals always included salad with Wos-Wit hot bacon dressing. Most often my family used iceberg lettuce, but traditionally hot bacon dressing always topped dandelion greens. My grandfather likes to tell the story of how his grandfather, visiting the city for Easter brunch, would pick dandelion greens in the local dog park to top with hot bacon dressing. And how everyone else at the table refused to eat them.
Nowadays, you can buy dandelions greens in most well-stocked grocery stores. Early Pennsylvania Dutch savored early spring greens like dandelion. Early spring tonic greens are full of minerals and vitamins. These greens provided much needed nourishment and nutrition that was often lacking in winter diets. Still today, people eat spring greens to stimulate digestive and circulatory systems, waking up the body after a long winter.
The last few years we’ve started a new Easter tradition of seeing what we can forage to include in our Easter meal. Easter was late this year, which meant we quickly collected a plentiful amount of greens. We came back with a basket full of garlic mustard, chickweed, wild mustard, and of course dandelion. Ramps tend to get all the love of springtime wild foods, and edible invasive weeds are often overlooked. I find foraging invasive greens much more satisfying than ramps, as you don’t need to be concerned about over-harvesting.
modernizing hot bacon dressing
The traditional PA Dutch hot bacon dressing is made of bacon, eggs, vinegar, milk, sugar, and dried mustard. I decided to give a modern makeover to my much beloved dressing, taking a page from the classic French salade Lyonnaise combination of bitter greens, warm dijon vinaigrette, poached eggs, and bacon. Tossing greens with the still warm vinaigrette mellows out the bitterness. Any bitter green from the grocery store or farmer’s market would work just as well in the place of foraged greens, such as dandelion, endive, frisée, arugula, spinach, watercress, or baby mustard greens. You would just want to avoid any delicate lettuces, which won’t stand up as well to the warm dressing.
spring tonic greens salad with warm pancetta vinaigrette
Ingredients
- 4 c mixed bitter greens washed and dried, *see note below
- 2 tbsp chives and chive blossoms or other herbs chopped
- 4 eggs hard boiled or poached
hot pancetta dressing
- 8 oz diced pancetta or bacon
- 2 tsp dijon mustard
- 2 tbsp white wine vinegar
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Tear or chop greens and put in large salad bowl.
- Add pancetta to medium skillet and cook over medium heat for 10-15 minutes, until browned and crispy. Turn off heat and add dijon, white wine vinegar, and olive oil to the skillet, stirring well to bring together into a dressing.
- While still warm, pour the dressing and pancetta pieces over the salad greens, and toss well (greens should wilt a bit). Season with salt and pepper to taste and any herbs. Top each portion with hard-boiled or poached egg.
hooray for eating invasive weeds!
My grandparents always ate steamed dandelion greens with vinegar in the spring to remove all winter toxins in the blood. My grandmother lived just shy of 100 years old so there may be something to it!