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Salad of lettuce hearts with shallots, baguette wafers and herbs

This is essentially a very smart and elegant green salad. In fact, so elegant that it would feel completely at ease as the starter to a very grand dinner party. The point is, a really well and carefully prepared green salad takes some beating and another benefit is that it is a very rare thing indeed. Don’t be tempted to try this recipe by substituting the leaves specified here with a bag of supermarket salad. That will not do at all. It is also an extravagant dish because only the lettuce hearts are used, but as the salads themselves are not prohibitively expensive, that should not be too much of a consideration, I hope. This is a light starter, so perhaps best followed by a richly satisfying main course.

Serves 4 as a starter

15–20cm piece of fresh baguette

1 clove of garlic, peeled and finely minced

olive oil

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 tsp freshly picked thyme leaves

1 head of lollo rosso

1 head of curly frisée

1 head of oak leaf lettuce

2 Little Gems or 1 romaine heart

2 large shallots, peeled and very finely chopped

1 small bunch of fresh tarragon, leaves picked and roughly chopped

1 small bunch of fresh flat-leaf parsley, leaves picked and chopped

Vinaigrette

Place the baguette in the freezer for about 45 minutes until it is semi-frozen. Set the oven to 150°C. With a very sharp, serrated knife, slice the bread into the thinnest possible slices – ideally wafer-thin so that you can see through them. (You will require 12–16 wafers in total – you may get more depending on the size of baguette.) Place the wafers carefully on a wire rack, itself placed on a baking sheet. Place the garlic in a teacup and barely cover it with olive oil. Using a pastry brush, paint the wafers lightly with the garlic oil and season with a touch of salt and pepper. Remember, the wafers are thin and will not require much seasoning. Sprinkle on the thyme leaves and bake in the oven until golden – about 20 minutes or so. Remove from the oven and allow to return to room temperature. Set aside.

Cut out the core from the salad heads and remove the outer leaves. (We use these for staff dinner at the restaurant and they are perfectly good, although not required here.) It is only the smallest, crispest inner leaves or hearts that we are after. The leaves should be kept whole and be no more than 6–8cm in length. Pick through all the lettuces in this way and wash the salad hearts in plenty of cold water. Drain them and spin dry, or simply leave them in a large colander for 20 minutes or so.

Place the drained salad hearts in a roomy glass bowl. Add the chopped shallots and herbs and season with a little sea salt and pepper. Dress with the vinaigrette and toss the whole lot together lightly and quickly.

Divide the salad between the plates, remembering that one of the most important ingredients of a good salad is air. Try to achieve height and lightness to the salad. Lightly break the wafers over the salads, add an extra sparing drizzle of olive oil and serve immediately.