I care not whether the humble chopped salad is en vogue—I love it with all my heart. As a perpetual small-bite-taker, I appreciate a meal in which each component is perfectly portioned into bite-sized pieces, and even better if they're well mixed and well seasoned. To me, that means components that are crunchy, briny, creamy, savory and toasty in equal measure, plus a dressing that's just on the right side of bracingly tart. I opted for lacinato kale as the base of this salad, because its robust texture holds up well to all of the flavors and toppings I'm throwing at it.

---

Ingredients

Salad:
1 head lacinato kale
1/4 head radicchio
1 can chickpeas
1 Tbsp Aleppo pepper
1/4 cup Genoa salami
1/4 cup provolone cheese
1/4 cup pistachios
1/4 cup pitted Castelvetrano olives

Dressing:
1 shallot
1 clove garlic
1 Tbsp dijon mustard
2 Tbsp olive oil
4 Tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
salt
pepper

directions

Preheat the oven to 350°. Drain and rinse the chickpeas, then dry them really well. Spread them on a sheet pan and drizzle with 1 Tbsp of olive oil plus the Aleppo pepper. If you don't have any on hand, you can just use a sprinkle of regular chili flakes. Add a generous amount of salt and some fresh-cracked pepper.

Roast chickpeas for 20–30 minutes, tossing half-way through.

While the chickpeas cook, finely chop the shallot then add the garlic and cover with the red wine vinegar. Give it a quick stir to make sure all the bits of shallot and garlic are covered with vinegar. Let sit while you get the rest of the salad ready.

De-rib the kale by holding the end of the stem in one hand, then grasping the bottom of the leafy bits with the other and pulling down. Gather the leaves tightly together and finely chop into ribbons about 1/2" thick. Rinse and dry the chopped kale well.

Finely chop the radicchio, then rinse and dry.

Slice the salami and cheese into 1/2" ribbons. Roughly chop the pistachios and slice the olives.

Finish the dressing by adding the mustard, olive oil, oregano, red pepper flakes and plenty of good salt and freshly cracked pepper. Stir well until the dressing is emulsified.

Add the kale and radicchio to a large mixing bowl, then add about half of the dressing. Get in there with your hands and massage the kale—this helps break it down a little so it's more tender while evenly distributing the dressing. Taste it and add more dressing if needed. Whatever dressing you have left over can be saved in the fridge for about a week (it's delicious on roasted potatoes!).

Now you can either add the dressed kale to a serving bowl and garnish with about 1/4 cup of all the toppings for a very satisfying presentation, or you can mix them all together and just get right down to business. The choice is yours.