Green lentils and bacon has long been a salad worth making. I will occasionally fold in some shards of crisp, olive-oil-drenched toasted ciabatta or lots of whole parsley leaves. A couple of years ago I started moving the whole thing up a notch by putting the lentils against a few pieces of exquisite Spanish ham and adding a certain smokiness with wide slivers of zucchini, their edges blackened from the grill. This has become a late-summer lunch I can’t get enough of.
Recipe information
Yield
enough for 4
Ingredients
For the Salad
For the Dressing
Preparation
Step 1
Slice the zucchini into long, thin ribbons about the thickness of a piece of lasagne. Put them in a colander with a scattering of salt and set aside in the sink or on a plate for a good half hour, longer if you have it.
Step 2
Cook the lentils in boiling, lightly salted water until tender but retaining a nutty bite. They are usually ready in fifteen to twenty minutes, but I start checking them after ten or so. I think it’s essential that they keep their shape and don’t soften. Drain them in a colander.
Step 3
While the lentils are cooking, make the dressing by mixing the vinegars, the oil, and the crushed garlic together with a little salt and black pepper (I like to dissolve the salt in the vinegar first before adding the oil). Thinly slice the green onions and stir them into the dressing. As soon as the lentils are drained, toss them in the dressing and cover.
Step 4
Mix the olive oil with the coarsely chopped parsley. Get the grill hot. If you prefer, a ridged grill pan will do.
Step 5
Rinse the salt from the zucchini, pat them dry, then cook them on the hot grill until their flesh starts to soften and they have charred a pleasing golden brown here and there. As you remove each from the grill, toss it in the olive oil and parsley. Divide the lentils and zucchini among four plates, and eat with the ham.
