Italian Chopped Salad

As I mentioned earlier in the week, this past weekend I spent a lot of time making a variety of salads. I love it when I have a salad already prepared waiting for me in the fridge, to just pull out and nosh on for lunch.

I have a lot of salad recipes that I've been wanting to try, this one, for Italian Chopped Salad among them. I changed it up a bit by adding fresh corn cut from the cob. You probably think that's a strange addition to a chopped salad, but it isn't at all. Here is a picture (not a good one because it was taken before digital cameras) of a salad that I had in Venice, Italy back in the summer of 2001. Look at all of the corn on top. Prior to this trip I had never eaten fresh corn on a salad, but now I love it, and so does my dad, who has a salad every day, and most of the time that salad is topped with fresh corn.

The slightly adapted recipe below is from bellyful.net, and can be changed up to suit your interests, likes, and what you have in the fridge. I made two changes, one, as I mentioned, was to add corn in place of the green olives, because I didn't have any of those on hand. The other was to swap out the scallions for red onion, because I happen to love red onion in a salad.

Italian Chopped Salad
Slightly adapted from bellyful.net

1 cup ditalini pasta, cooked according to package directions
3 cups chopped romaine lettuce
1 9-oz. pkg. Melissa’s Peeled and Steamed Garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained

1 cup cubed summer sausage
1 cup cubed provolone
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
1 cup marinated artichokes, drained and chopped
1/2 cup sliced red onion
1/2 cup fresh corn

Dressing:

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons honey
Two cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/8 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cups red wine vinegar
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

This salad can be prepared in one of two ways. Either you can combine all of the salad ingredients in a large bowl and toss it together with the dressing, and then serve, or, if using it as a main dish, you can put it together, attractively, in a pasta bowl (like I have used here) or on a plate. It's your choice.

To make the dressing - in a medium bowl whisk together all of the dressing ingredients except for the olive oil. Slowly pour in olive oil, whisking constantly to emulsify*. Drizzle over the salad and gently toss to coat

*I swear by bullet blenders for making vinaigrette salad dressings. I toss everything in together, and pulse it until it is combined. Using a bullet blender your salad dressing is going to beautifully emulsify, and stay emulsified for as long as it's in your fridge.

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