• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

FORAGER | CHEF

Award-winning chef, author and forager Alan Bergo. Food is all around you.

  • Home
  • About
  • Wild Mushrooms
    • Mushroom Archive
    • Posts by Species
      • Other Mushrooms
        • Lobster Mushrooms
        • Huitlacoche
        • Shrimp of the Woods
        • Truffles
        • Morels
        • Shaggy Mane
        • Hericium
        • Puffball
      • Polypores
        • Hen of the Woods
        • Dryad Saddle
        • Chicken of The Woods
        • Cauliflowers
        • Ischnoderma
        • Beefsteak
      • Chanterelles
        • Black Trumpet
        • Hedgehogs
        • Yellowfeet
      • Gilled
        • Matsutake
        • Honey Mushrooms
        • Russula / Lactarius
          • Candy Caps
          • Saffron Milkcap
          • Indigo Milkcap
      • Boletes
        • Porcini
        • Leccinum
        • Slippery Jacks
    • Recipes
      • Fresh
      • Dried
      • Preserves
    • The Basics
  • Plants
    • Plant Archive
    • Leafy Green Recipes
      • Leafy Green Plant Varieties
    • Ramps and Onions
    • Wild Herbs and Spices
      • Spruce and Conifers
      • Pollen
      • Prickly Ash
      • Bergamot / Wild Oregano
      • Spicebush
      • Golpar / Cow Parsnip
      • Wild Carraway
    • Wild Fruit
      • Wild Plums
      • Highbush Cranberry
      • Wild Grapes
      • Rowanberries
      • Wild Cherries
      • Aronia
      • Nannyberry
      • Wild Blueberries
    • From The Garden
    • Nuts, Roots, Tubers and Grains
    • Stalks and Shoots
  • Meat
    • Four-Legged Animals
      • Venison
      • Small Game
    • Poultry
    • Fish/Seafood
    • Offal and Organ Meat Recipes
    • Charcuterie
  • Recipes
    • Pickles, Preserves, Etc
    • Fermentation
    • Condiments
    • Appetizers
    • Soup
    • Salad
    • Side Dishes
    • Entrees
    • Baking
    • Sweets
  • Video
    • Field, Forest Feast (The Wild Harvest)
    • Foraging Videos
    • Lamb and Goat Series
    • YouTube Tutorials
  • Press
    • Podcasts / Interviews
  • Work
    • Public Speaking
    • Charity and Private Dinners
    • Forays / Classes / Demos

Heirloom Tomato Salad with Pickled Chanterelles and Ramp Leaf Oil

Jump to Recipe Print Recipe

Heirloom tomato salad with ramp oil and pickled chanterellesI never thought something as simple as making a salad could remind me of why I cook in the first place.

I cook for a living, but before I made money doing it, I just lived to cook. Making things in the kitchen was my creative outlet, and made people around me happy.

Ever since I was a teenager, one of my favorite activities has been being around friends or loved ones and digging through their fridges to see what needs to get cooked for dinner. I make food without any recipes and pretty much slap it together in an hour or so. For me it’s a way of living in the moment, and enjoying not having to worry about if something isn’t perfect for paying guests at the restaurant. Unfortunately I don’t get to cook like that often, but I do occasionally.

Some of the best food you’ll ever eat is made “a la minute” like that, so I’ve been trying to occasionally set aside the culinary literature and menu development, and remember to just cook once and a while. Chef Eric Ripert has an entire book focused on this type of cooking, appropriately called “A Return To Cooking”– it’s a favorite in my collection.

Heirloom tomato salad with ramp oil and pickled chanterelles

The last time I just stopped everything and just made something was when an old friend of mine came into the restaurant for her birthday. The friend happened to be my high-school girlfriend. Like most teenage relationships, it ended pretty rough, but we’ve managed to keep in touch and occasionally grab a drink or send each other old pictures we come across.

I wanted to make her something not on the menu, so I looked around for things I thought were special, and then I remembered a dinner I made her that she loved-a risotto with fresh tomatoes. We had a bunch of nice heirlooms that had just come into the restaurant, so I made a salad with them.

I picked out a few tomatoes with interesting shapes, some ramp oil, pickled chanterelles, greens and basil. There were no complicated sauces, reductions or techniques, just a knife and a pinch of salt and pepper. It felt really good to just live in the moment and make something again.

So, if you’re a chef, line cook, prep cook, caterer, home cook, or don’t identify with any of those titles at all, remember to cook without recipes once in a while, improvisation is good for the soul.

Heirloom tomato salad with ramp oil and pickled chanterelles

Heirloom tomato salad with ramp oil and pickled chanterelles
Print Recipe
No ratings yet

Heirloom Tomato Salad with Pickled Chanterelles and Ramp Oil

Ingredients

  • Ramp oil
  • Heirloom tomatoes as many different colors and shapes as possible
  • Pickled chanterelles
  • Small salad greens I used a mix of orach, French cress, and burgundy amaranth
  • Kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper
  • Dash of champagne vinegar
  • Shaved cheese like Grana Padano
  • Fresh basil sliced thinly-you could use whole, leaves too if they're very small

Instructions

  • Look at each tomato individually and try to cut some of them in different ways to show off their uniqueness, you could dice some, slice some thinly, quarter them, etc.
  • Put a few slices of tomato on each plate, then season lightly with salt and pepper. Garnish with some of the basil and the pickled chanterelles, then dress the greens with a bit of the ramp oil, salt, pepper and vinegar and place haphazardly around the tomatoes. Shave a few thin slices of cheese over each salad and serve immediately.

Notes

This is all about the heirloom tomatoes, using out of season tomatoes won't work for this.
Heirloom tomato salad with ramp oil and pickled chanterelles
Tomatoes
Heirloom tomato salad with ramp oil and pickled chanterelles
Opal basil
Heirloom tomato salad with ramp oil and pickled chanterelles
Pickled chanterelles

Heirloom tomato salad with ramp oil and pickled chanterelles
Orach, French Cress, and Amaranth
Heirloom tomato salad with ramp oil and pickled chanterelles
Cheese
Heirloom tomato salad with ramp oil and pickled chanterelles
Ramp leaf oil

 

Related

Previous Post: « Chanterelle Torte
Next Post: Black Trumpet Puree »

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




Primary Sidebar

James Beard Award Winner

beard award

Subscribe (It’s free)

Forager Chef

Forager Chef

Footer

Instagram

foragerchef

FORAGER | CHEF®
🍄🌱🍖
Author: The Forager Chef’s Book of Flora
James Beard Award ‘22
Host: Field Forest Feast 👇
streaming on @tastemade

Alan Bergo
HALP! I’ve been keeping an eye on two loaded mul HALP! I’ve been keeping an eye on two loaded mulberry trees and both got a bunch of fruit knocked down by the storms and wind. 

If anyone in West WI or around the Twin Cities knows of some trees, (ideally on private property but beggars can’t be choosers) that I could climb and shake with a tarp underneath, shoot me a DM and let’s pick some! 🤙😄

TIA

#throwadogabone #mansquirrel #beattlefruit #mulberries #shakintrees
Lampascioni, or edible hyacinth bulbs are one of t Lampascioni, or edible hyacinth bulbs are one of the more interesting things I’ve eaten. 

These are an ancient wild food traditionally harvested in Southern Italy, especially in Puglia and the Salentine Peninsula, as well as Greece and Crete. I’ve seen at least 6-7 different names for them. 

A couple different species are eaten, but Leopoldia comosa is probably the one I see mentioned the most. They also grow wild in North America. 

The bulbs are toxic raw, but edible after an extended boil. Traditionally they’re preserved in vinegar and oil, pickled, or preserves in other methods using acid and served as antipasti. (Two versions in pic 3). 

They’re one of the most heavily documented traditional wild foods I’ve seen. There’s a few shots of book excerpts here.

The Oxford companion to Italian Food says you can eat them raw-don’t do that. 

Even after pickling, the bulbs are aggressively extremely bitter. Definitely an acquired taste, but one that’s grown on me. 

#traditionalfoods #vampagioli #lampascione #cucinapovera #lampascioni #leopoldiacomosa #foraging
Went to some new spots yesterday looking for poke Went to some new spots yesterday looking for poke sallet and didn’t do too well (I’m at the tip of its range). I did see some feral horseradish though which I don’t see very often. 

Just like wild parsnip, this is the exact same plant you see in the store and garden-just escaped. 

During the growing season the leaves can be good when young. 

They have an aggressive taste bitter enough to scare your loved ones. Excellent in a blend of greens cooked until extra soft, preferably with bacon or similar. 

For reference, you don’t harvest the root while the plant is growing as they’ll be soft and unappealing-do that in the spring or fall. This is essentially the same as when people tell you to harvest in months that have an R in them. 

#amoraciarusticana #foraging #horseradishleaves #horseradish #bittergreens
In Italy chicken of the woods is known as “fungo In Italy chicken of the woods is known as “fungo del carrubo” (carob tree mushroom) as it’s one of the common tree hosts there. 

My favorite, and really the only traditional recipe I’ve found for them so far is simmered in a spicy tomato sauce with hot chile and capers, served with grilled bread. 

Here I add herbs too: fresh leaves of bee balm that are perfect for harvesting right now and have a flavor similar to oregano and thyme. 

Makes a really good side dish or app, especially if you shower it with a handful of pecorino before scooping it up with the bread. 

#chickenofthewoods #fungodelcarrubo #allthemushroomtags #traditionalfoods #beebalm
First of the year 😁. White-pored chicken of t First of the year 😁. 

White-pored chicken of the woods (Laetiporus cincinnatus) are my favorite chicken. 

Superior bug resistance, slightly better flavor + texture. They also stay tender longer compared to their more common yellow-pored cousins. Not a single bug in this guy. 

#treemeat #ifoundfood #foraging #laetiporuscincinnatus #chickenofthewoods
TBT brisket face 💦. Staff meal with @jesseroes TBT brisket face 💦. Staff meal with 
@jesseroesler and crew @campwandawega
📸 @misterberndt 

#staffmeal #brisket #meatsweats #naptime
Load More... Follow on Instagram

Privacy

  • Privacy Policy

Affiliate Disclosure

 I may earn a small commission for my endorsement, recommendation, testimonial, and/or link to any products or services from this website. Your purchases help keep this website free and help with the many costs involved with this site as it has continued to grow over the years. 

Copyright © 2022 ·