This simple, super-tasty dressing is easy to make in a blender, and the perfect finish for good green-leaf lettuce such as gem.
"This is my favorite salad dressing of all time, and it's made by my mother-in-law, Carol. I love the simplicity of it: this olive dressing on green-leaf lettuce. That's it! The very first time I went to my future wife's house for dinner, her mom served this salad. It was perfect. And I'm a guy who hates salads (not because of the vegetables, but because no one knows how to make a proper salad). Salads should be good lettuce with good light dressing, not every vegetable in the world shredded and covered in poppy-seed-honey dressing with a cup of granola or something." — Matty Matheson, host of Viceland's "Dead On Set" and "It's Suppertime!" and author of Matty Matheson: A Cookbook
Adapted from Matty Matheson: A Cookbook by Matty Matheson. Copyright © 2018 by Matty Matheson. Used with permission by Abrams. All rights reserved.
- 1 cup pitted Cerignola olives
- 1 garlic clove, peeled
- 1 scallion, chopped
- 1 lemon, zested and juiced
- ½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 shallot, diced
- 1 bunch parsley, leaves chopped
- 3 tablespoons white vinegar
- ½ cup canola oil
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- Green leaf lettuce
In a blender, pulse olives, garlic, scallion, lemon zest and juice, and the olive oil until it becomes frothy and lumpy, like a tapenade. Keep pulsing; don’t leave it on blend as you don’t want it to emulsify. Pour into a bowl.
Stir in the shallot and parsley, then the vinegar and canola oil. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Serve the dressing over the lettuce.
