Spinach Salad with Figs and Parmesan © llizard aka ejm 2000, 2002

Ingredients
My father worked with an Italian man whose father had handed down the perfect salad dressing recipe to him (father to son kind of thing for generations) As I recall, the recipe goes as follows:

      A generous man puts in the oil;
      A stingy man puts in the vinegar;
      And a careful man puts in the salt.

Of course, an Italian would use wine vinegar rather than waste balsamic vinegar. I use this simple recipe with great success, adding lemon juice in place of some or all of the vinegar, ground pepper, a little thyme, tarragon, ground brown mustard seeds and/or garlic, depending on my whim.
Preparation
  1. At least an hour before serving the salad, prepare vinaigrette by whisking all ingredients well. Refrigerate til ready to use.

  2. Wash, dry and tear spinach leaves into bite size pieces.

  3. Put figs, onion into a large bowl.

  4. Dress the salad with vinaigrette. Put salad into individual plates. Garnish with shaved parmesan.

This is really good, especially if the parmesan is shaved in biggish pieces. Serve Salad with Rustic French Bread or crusty baguette.

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