Bacon, Eggs, and Asparagus Salad

To make the vinaigrette: Put all the ingredients in a small jar, cover, and shake to blend; or use a small bowl and a whisk. You can make the vinaigrette up to a week in advance and keep it in the fridge. Shake well again before using.

To make the salad: Bring a medium saucepan of heavily salted water to a boil. One by one, put the cold eggs on a spoon and slowly and gently lower them into the water. Allow the eggs to boil for exactly 6 minutes, then remove the pan from the heat, lift the eggs into a strainer, and run them under cold water to cool them quickly. Fill the pan with cold water and leave the eggs in the water until needed.

Bring a large skillet of salted water to a boil. Slip the asparagus into the pan and cook for 4 minutes, or until you can pierce the spears with the tip of a paring knife. The asparagus should be cooked through but not at all mushy. Carefully transfer the spears to a plate lined with a double thickness of paper towels and pat them dry. (At this point, I put the asparagus directly on the plate (throw the paper towel away), drizzle them with a teaspoon or two of the vinaigrette, and sprinkle them with salt and pepper. I find dressing the spears while they are still warm allows them to soak in the flavors.)

Pour out the salted water, rinse the skillet to cool it, dry it and lay strips of bacon in the pan. Cook over medium-low heat, turning as needed, until the bacon is golden and crisp on both sides. Remove the strips and put them between a double thickness of paper towels; when the bacon is cool, cut it into narrow strips. Leave 2 tbsp of the bacon fat into the skillet – you’ll use it for the eggs.

When you’re ready to serve, very carefully shell the eggs. It’s a fussy job, because the eggs are so soft, and you might not get the shells off cleanly, but unless you break into the yolks, it will be fine. Rinse the eggs to remove any bits of shell and pat them dry. Warm the bacon fat over medium heat.

While the bacon fat is heating, assemble the salad. You can put it together on a platter or arrange it on individual plates. Either way, season the mesclun with salt and pepper, then toss it with about three-quarters of the vinaigrette (or all of it if you already dressed the asparagus), and arrange in the center of the platter or your plates. Toss the asparagus with the remaining vinaigrette (if you haven’t tossed them into it before) and lay the spears over the greens.

Now return to the skillet. When the fat is warm, gingerly slip the eggs into the skillet and roll them around in the fat for a minute or two, just to coat them with fat, heat them slightly and color them a little.

Lift the eggs out of the skillet and place them on top of the asparagus. Scatter the bacon and toasted nuts over the salad and serve immediately.

Notes:

Eggs, as pictured above and below, were cooked using Dorie’s Ruffly Poached Eggs method, which makes them very pretty and special. If you don’t want to have to shell the eggs, you could very well just poach cracked eggs, as you would to make Eggs Benedict, and still fry them gently in the bacon fat before serving.

Recipe By: “Around My French Table" by Dorie Greenspan

Serving Size: 4