Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Winter Chicory Salad: Escarole, Radicchio, and Sweet Potatoes

This is how I eat salad in December. By the crunchy, juicy-bitter, burgundy plateful. With a slice of dense bread under fork-marked pâté, I call it lunch.

Winter Chicory Salad

Rinse as many radicchio and escarole leaves as you want to eat. Shake the water off them and tear them up a bit. Dump a very well-roasted sweet potato on top; drizzle with olive oil, maple syrup, and apple cider vinegar; and season with salt and pepper.

Orange sycamore leaves: San Francisco's rare bit of evidence that it is, indeed, December. The sweetgum trees are just starting to turn.