Perfect Greek Salad

Greek food is the perfect example of why less is more and why the quality of the ingredients makes all the difference in the world. Last week after watching an episode of “The Best thing I Ever Ate,” my husband asked me what my favorite dish was, and the things that came to mind were sea urchin, octopus, tomatoes and fondue. It was an interesting exercise in self-examination, because I realized that my favorite dishes are often the simplest. One of my other favorite things to eat is a Greek salad. Not the one you get at diners or your average Greek restaurant, but the one they serve in Greece. The simple one, the one without radishes, anchovies, dolmades or lettuce. Yes, lettuce, you heard me correctly, there is NO Lettuce in a Greek salad.

Now don’t get me wrong, Greeks like lettuce and in fact we have many salads and dishes with leafy Greens. It is just that lettuce has no place in a classic Greek salad. I have pondered why lettuce appears in the Greek salad west of the Atlantic and have come to two conclusions. First, lettuce helps to keep costs down since it acts as filler and two, restaurant owners were probably afraid that if lettuce wasn’t present, customers wouldn’t think it was an actual salad. You would think that something as simple as a Greek salad would not need a lengthy post or recipe, but I can assure you that other than in Greece, there are very few places where I can get a decent Greek salad.

What makes this salad difficult is finding the right ingredients. Your tomatoes need to be perfectly ripe, your olive oil needs to be the best and your black olives cannot come out of a can. Kalamatas are preferable, but I have gotten away with Nicoise. In Greece you can order either a tomato-cucumber salad (Anguro-Tomata) or Greek village salad (Horiatiki). The difference is that the latter has cheese and olives, but other than that they are the same.

Greek Village Salad a.k.a The Greek Salad

2-3 super ripe tomatoes cut into eights

½ an English or seedless cucumber halved, then sliced

½ small red onion sliced

4 oz Feta either crumbled or in a large slice on top (omit Feta to make this a vegan entree or side)

10-15 Kalamata olives, depending on your taste and the size of the olives.*

1/3 cup olive oil

2/3 cup vinegar (I like a lot of vinegar which will add to the

dipping experience which is described below)

1 tsp Greek or Mexican oregano

Kosher salt and pepper to taste

Add the tomatoes, cucumbers, red onions, black olives, salt, pepper, ½ of the oregano, olive oil and vinegar to a serving bowl and toss. Top with feta and add the remaining oregano on top.

*My grandmother also will include thinly slices light green peppers if they are available.

Serves four as a side or 2 as a main.

Serve with crusty bread, which you can dip in the juices that collect in the bottom of the bowl. This is not rude and considered proper form at the dinner table. In fact we frequently eat out of the same bowl and don’t bother to serve the salad on individual plates.

For a variety of bargain-priced, quality feta, olive oil, olives and oregano, go to Titan Foods in Astoria (http://www.titanfood.com/). When I lived in Miami I used to ship from them and even with the shipping included it was still cheaper than buying local. If you are feeling adventurous and want to try other Greek products, feel free to email me for other recommendations on what to buy.

Enjoy!