Endiviensalat mit Speck

There's a salad you find at every Gasthaus in the Salzkammergut, and it's this one. A big bowl of curly endive, slightly bitter and springy, hit with a warm dressing made from rendered Speck and good vinegar. The heat of the dressing softens the leaves just enough that they go from stiff and defiant to tender and willing, but you have to move fast. The dressing has to be hot when it hits the greens. That's the whole trick.

I remember watching Gretel make this on one of our trips to Austria when I was maybe ten or eleven. We'd come back from the Grünmarkt and she had a head of Endivie under her arm and a piece of Speck wrapped in paper. She cut the Speck into small pieces, rendered them slowly in a pan until they were golden and crisp, then splashed vinegar into the hot fat. The kitchen filled with that sharp, porky smell that tells you something good is about to happen. She poured it straight over the torn endive, tossed it twice, and put it on the table. Five minutes, start to finish.

This is the kind of salad Austrians serve alongside Schweinsbraten, Knödel, rich stews, anything that wants a sharp, bitter counterpoint on the plate. It's not a main course salad. It's the thing that cuts through the richness and makes you want another bite of everything else. Good Austrian home cooking doesn't need twenty ingredients. It needs the right four or five, treated with respect.