Instructions

1. The greens should be completely dry. No matter what kind of greens you use, they should be as dry as possible. If greens aren't dry, they feel weighed down and even a little slimy when the dressing is added. I like to buy bags of mixed salad greens (sure, I could make my own mix, but I don't always have the time or inclination to buy frisee, radicchio, romaine, arugula, and butter lettuce and wash and chop them myself!), but these should be washed too.

Wash the greens and spin dry if you like, then lay them out on a towel to air-dry for a little while.

2. The greens should be bite-sized. Really. Make sure the greens are torn into bite-sized bits. I really hate those oversized wedges of lettuce left in restaurant salads; you have to cut them up to get them in your mouth! No good.

Tear up your greens if you think they will be too big to spear and eat gracefully.

3. Put the greens in a really big bowl. This gives you space to dress the salad without splashing or compressing all the air out of what should be a light, fluffy mix of greens.

No matter how you serve your salad, it's best to toss it in a really big bowl -- much bigger than the volume of the green themselves.

4. Add any other vegetables you like (make sure they are dry too). Herbs are extra-good. For a really simple salad, this is where you toss in any little extras. I don't like to over-complicate my side salads or weigh them down with lots of heavy vegetables. But sometimes I add a little carrot or cucumber, finely shredded and blotted dry. Finely shredded herbs are wonderful in salad too; I'm partial to mint.

Here I added about 1/3 cup grated carrot (I didn't peel the carrot, and I grated it straight into the salad) and a small handful chiffonaded basil.

5. Always dress your salad. Bottles at the table -- no. All right. Here's my salad manifesto. I don't believe that salads should ever, ever be dressed at the table by the diners. A good salad is not a pile of vegetables with gloppy dressing on top. A good salad has dressing mixed all throughout, and a dressing calibrated to the salad itself. I know some might disagree with this, but I'm positively militant about it! Salad should never come to the party naked.

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