Summary
This salad was created on the fly with ingredients that cookbook author Patricia Wells found at the San Francisco Ferry Plaza Farmers Market. Filled with crunchy snow peas, almonds, pancetta, and asparagus and tossed with a light, lemony dressing, it’s a perfect lazy lunch when served with a glass of rosé and some crusty bread.
What to buy: Patricia uses a lemon-infused olive oil here, but if you can’t find a similar product, just use regular extra-virgin olive oil and add the finely grated zest of 1 medium lemon.
Watch Patricia assemble her salad in her My Go-To Dish video for Chowhound.
Ingredients
- 1 pound green or purple asparagus, stems trimmed
- 1/4 cup water
- 2 tablespoons lemon-infused extra-virgin olive oil
- Kosher salt or coarse sea salt
- 8 thin slices pancetta (about 1 1/2 ounces), cut into 1/2-inch pieces
- 4 ounces snow peas, sliced on the diagonal into 1/2-inch pieces
- 3 ounces semifirm cheese, such as Gouda, Comté, or young Asiago, medium dice (about 3/4 cup)
- 2 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest (from about 2 medium lemons)
- 3 tablespoons half-and-half
- 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice, plus more as needed
- 1/4 cup roasted, salted whole almonds, coarsely chopped
- Crumbled vegetable chips, such as kale chips or carrot chips, for garnish