We all get hammered over the head so often about fresh ingredients and using the best ingredients ("Use a really good olive oil," says The Barefoot Contessa; "I make my own toothpaste," says Alice Waters) that sometimes it's easy to dismiss it all as snobby nonsense. Then you go to Franny's, which is quickly becoming one of my favorite restaurants (and certainly the best restaurant near our apartment; it's only two blocks away!) and order their radicchio salad and when it arrives and you take the first bite you're struck speechless. What's so awe-inspiring about it? Is it the execution? Is it the conception? No, you realize, it's the ingredients.
On your plate is radicchio unlike any radicchio you've ever seen--it's Dr. Seuss radicchio--and it's sharp and bitter and incredibly fresh; and then then there's thick intense slivers of Pecorino--really good Pecorino (oh no, I sound like Ina!)--and walnuts, but not the chemically treated walnuts you buy at Key Food for super cheap; these are fancy walnuts, they're meaty and appropriately nutty. Finally, there's the olive oil--which must be a very high end oil--and, at last, the balsamic vinegar which, too, tastes super special, aged and thick and tart and sweet.
This is a case of exceptional ingredients doing all the work for you and it proves the point that to make great food at home, you don't necessarily have to be a whiz in the kitchen: sometimes, you just have to be a really good shopper.
And that means YOU, Carrie Bradshaw.
Comments (13)
Good post! Makes me want to go out and spend some real money on good olive oil.
Posted by Bek | February 10, 2009 1:52 PM
I make my own toothpaste...out of radicchio.
This looks so very yummy!
Posted by Jada | February 10, 2009 1:58 PM
I make my own toothpaste...out of radicchio.
This looks so very yummy!
Posted by Jada | February 10, 2009 1:59 PM
I'm probably going to sound like such an airhead, but does Alice Waters really make her own toothpaste? (Please hold up the sarcasm warning sign!)
Posted by Angry Brit | February 10, 2009 3:04 PM
I just went to Franny's saturday and they had a mixed chicory salad!!!!
delicious simplicity!
Posted by me | February 10, 2009 3:09 PM
Now that's a beautiful salad.
Posted by Rose | February 10, 2009 3:24 PM
Love the Alice Waters comment. Reminds me of a Martha Stewart satire that showed her making her own condoms. Love the olive oil at Fairway...lately I've been into the Pugliese...at $16 it's not too bad.
Posted by Laura | February 10, 2009 4:41 PM
Good fresh ingredients make the meal.
Posted by Stephanie | February 10, 2009 9:05 PM
That radicchio from Treviso is equally good grilled or roasted, too.
Posted by Judith in Umbria | February 11, 2009 1:33 PM
I am going to try to re-create this at home, thought I might throw some dried apricots in there too...
Thanks for sharing Franny's salad with us
Posted by Dallas from Bitchin' Kitchen | February 11, 2009 3:07 PM
Love love love love LOVE Franny's. Wish it was two blocks away instead of sixty kazillion blocks.
Posted by Saint Tigerlily | February 11, 2009 3:44 PM
You do know that the Food Co-op gets its produce from the same farmer as Franny's, right? Maybe some day you'll tell us why you don't join?
Posted by ASH | February 11, 2009 4:16 PM
I was at Franny's last night for Valentine's Day (my boyf and I have a pizza-on-holidays tradition). Though they didn't have the above salad, they had a blood orange and olive salad that was INCREDIBLE. I seriously could've licked the plate clean. The olives were the best I've had in my life! Parsley and some fabulous olive oil rounded out the dish. I highly recommend it!
Posted by Eeez | February 15, 2009 12:42 PM