The FAMOUS La Scala Chopped Salad!

Dear Reader this is the recipe for the famous La Scala chopped salad. This deliciously crunchy salad is said to be a favourite salad of the Kardashians and is made using a whole iceberg lettuce, chickpeas, salami, mozzarella and parmesan in a simple but tasty vinaigrette. This is a beautiful salad to serve with grilled meat or fish and is fresh, crunchy and delicious and made in about 10 minutes flat. It is a pushy recipe!

Ls Scala is a restaurant in Beverly Hills, LA. The chopped salad is called La Scala Original Chopped Salad™ and it is actually trademarked. I got the recipe from the LA Times but I really liked the way that Gabrielle Quille styled hers with the chickpeas on top. I've since made a few versions of this salad now that we are in our post pandemic/vege crisis season and you can now buy lettuce for around $2 a head. The original salad recipe calls for 1 head of iceberg and 1 head of romaine or cos lettuce but honestly I think the ratios work better with 1 head of iceberg lettuce.

Salami in a salad is a new thing to me but I found that you can omit salami or you can replace it with crisp prosciutto, bacon, chicken breast, smoked chicken or sun dried tomato strips if you're vegetarian.

Basically this chopped salad is VERY versatile!

I honestly did not expect to love this as much as I did but I really adored the crunchiness of the lettuce, the texture from the chickpeas and the simple vinaigrette. Adding mozzarella and salami works really well and because this makes enough to serve 4 for lunch or 6 as a side Mr NQN and I were eating it over a few meals and I never tired of it.

I told Monica about this salad because we both really enjoy crunchy salads although neither of us have had salami in a salad before (sheltered much? haha). Usually you get slightly healthier proteins in salad but in a weird way salami works. I have made this a few times since and I'll probably make a vegetarian version for barbecues and when the Elliotts come over.

Speaking of Monica I haven't done an In My Kitchen for a while now where I show you what's new in my kitchen and the whole roundup is hosted by the lovely Sherry from Sherry's Pickings. But Monica gave me some really interesting things from her recent travels. There were items from Italy, Helsinki airport and Singapore where she stopped for a few nights so I thought I'd share them here (I mean I could probably show you the lettuce in my fridge but that's less exciting!).

There were so many interesting things like Fleur de Sel, wholewheat pasta from Salento, Puglia and a very cute little garlic grater. I loved the tortellini purse which I use to carry my camera in my bag. The Irvins Spicy Salted Egg noodles are absolutely delicious (seriously, just add an egg and it's perfection). The items from Helsinki airport were also wonderful like licorice and seabuckthorn and some cloudberry chocolates which have a cloudberry liqueur centre and dark chocolate shell.

But I saved my favourite item for last to reveal to you. It's a big cock tea towel (which you see in the main picture slung across Mr NQN's shoulder). Haha! When Monica showed it to me she could barely contain her glee and I could not stop laughing.

So tell me Dear Reader, have you ever had salami in a salad before? Have you tried the La Scala chopped salad?

La Scala Chopped Salad

An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 0 minutes

Serves: 4 for lunch

For Dressing

• 90ml/3flozs extra virgin olive oil
• 3 tablespoons sherry vinegar
• 1.5 teaspoons Dijon mustard
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 45g/1.6ozs. grated parmesan cheese

For Salad

• 400g/14oz tin chickpeas, drained and rinsed

• 1 head iceberg lettuce, shredded

• 125g/4ozs salami, cut intro strips

• 125g/4ozs. grated mozzarella

• 125g/4ozs. sun dried tomato slices

Step 1 - First make the dressing by whisking the oil, vinegar, mustard, salt and pepper together (don't add the parmesan yet). Take a third of this mixture and mix it in a medium bowl with the drained chickpeas and set aside in a medium or large bowl.

Step 2 - Cut up the lettuce into medium shreds and toss with the salami, mozzarella and sun dried tomato slices. Add the parmesan to the the remaining dressing and toss and then place on top of the chickpeas. Press down gently and then place a large plate on top of the bowl and then gently upturn it so that the chickpeas are on the top of the salad. Serve straight away.