Garden Lettuces with Shallot Vinaigrette

This is the salad I eat more than any other. When the lettuces are right, truly right, picked that morning and still holding onto their aliveness, they need almost nothing. A simple vinaigrette. Your hands to toss them. A bowl large enough to give the leaves room to move.

I learned this in France, watching women at the market squeeze heads of lettuce to judge their hearts, then dress them at home with the kind of attention Americans reserve for complicated things. The French know that simplicity requires the best ingredients. There is nowhere to hide.

The shallot vinaigrette is classic for good reason. Shallots have a sweetness that raw onion lacks, and when you let them sit in good vinegar, they soften into something almost floral. A touch of Dijon helps the oil and acid come together. That is all. Let things taste of what they are.

Every meal is a meaningful choice. When you buy lettuces from a farmer who planted them, watered them, and cut them for market, you are keeping that farm alive. The salad tastes better for the connection. It always does.