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This Fancy Italian Salad has bright greens, crisp chickpeas, salty salami, sharp Parmesan, and a tangy red wine vinaigrette for that satisfying restaurant-salad feeling at home. The two kinds of lettuce deliver plenty of crunch, while warm-ish Parmesan chickpeas take the place of croutons. You’re going to love how special it looks with minimal effort.
Why You’ll Love It
- Restaurant-style crunch — iceberg and romaine bring two kinds of crisp texture to every bite.
- Crisp chickpea croutons — baked with Parmesan, basil, and garlic powder, they’re savory and satisfying.
- Hearty enough for lunch — salami, cheese, cucumber, tomato, and vinaigrette Keep it from feeling skimpy.
- Special without the fuss — no seventeen vegetables to julienne or blender dressing to dismantle afterward.
Ingredient Notes
For the lettuce, use shredded iceberg and finely sliced romaine just as written. I know it can seem fussy to buy two lettuces, but they really do different jobs. Iceberg is crisp in that old-school steakhouse way, and romaine holds up beautifully under dressing. I have made it with only romaine when that’s what I had, and it was still tasty. It just wasn’t quite as… fancy. There, I said it.
English cucumber is nice because you don’t have to deal with a big seedy center. Less bother. The tomato should be a Roma, diced fairly small, so you get little bursts of tomato without turning the whole bowl watery. I once used a very ripe garden tomato and, well, it was delicious but the salad became a damp situation.
For salami, buy decent slices if you can. You only need a quarter cup, so it’s worth getting something you’d actually want to nibble while standing at the counter. And please use good grated Parmesan—the real kind, not the powdery shelf-stable stuff in the green can. I’m not trying to start a family feud, but that can has its place, and this salad is not it.
The vinaigrette is plain and punchy: olive oil, red wine vinegar, oregano, garlic powder, salt, and lots of freshly cracked pepper. Nothing flashy.
Ingredients
- 3 cups shredded iceberg lettuce
- 1 head Romaine lettuce, finely sliced
- 1 cup English cucumber, chopped
- 1/4 cup salami slices, sliced into strips
- 1 Roma tomato, finely diced
- 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese, the good stuff if you can manage it
- 1 (15-ounce) can chickpeas, drained
- 1 tablespoon Parmesan cheese, for the chickpeas
- 2 teaspoons olive oil, for the chickpeas
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder, for the chickpeas
- Kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper, to taste
- 1/4 cup olive oil, for the vinaigrette
- 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
- 2 teaspoons dried oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder, for the vinaigrette
- Kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper, to taste
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350°F and set out a small baking tray. Drain the chickpeas well—I mean really let them drain for a minute. You don’t need to turn this into a paper-towel project, but dripping chickpeas will not get as nicely golden, and I have learned that particular lesson more than once.
Put the drained chickpeas in a bowl with 1 tablespoon Parmesan, 2 teaspoons olive oil, dried basil, and 1 teaspoon garlic powder. Toss until they’re thoroughly coated, then season lightly with kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper. Spread them on the baking tray and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until golden and crisp-looking. They’ll firm up a bit as they sit, so don’t panic if they aren’t shattering like Potato chips straight from the oven.
While the chickpeas bake, combine the shredded iceberg, finely sliced romaine, chopped English cucumber, salami strips, and diced Roma tomato in a large salad bowl. Add half of the 1/3 cup grated Parmesan and reserve the other half for the top. I like to use the biggest bowl I own here because tossing salad in a too-small bowl is one of those unnecessary irritations that can make a person say a bad word before 6 p.m.
In a separate small bowl, whisk together the 1/4 cup olive oil, red wine vinegar, dried oregano, and 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder. Season with kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste, then set it aside. Don’t dress the lettuce yet unless everyone is already sitting down with forks in hand. The salad waits beautifully; dressed lettuce does not. It gets tired fast, like me after an afternoon at a warehouse store.
When you’re ready to serve, add about three-quarters of the baked chickpeas to the salad bowl along with the vinaigrette. Toss everything together until the leaves are lightly coated. Transfer the salad to a serving bowl or divide among four bowls, then scatter the reserved Parmesan and remaining chickpeas over the top. Serve right away, while the lettuce is crisp and the chickpeas still have their little bit of oven warmth.
Variations
You can keep the salami off to the side and use less dressing if you prefer to taste the ingredients more distinctly. The salad is best properly dressed—nothing swimming, obviously, but dry leaves are not the goal.
You can also arrange the ingredients in sections over the lettuce rather than tossing everything together, especially if you prefer tomatoes and cucumbers kept separate.
Baking the chickpeas ahead in the morning and leaving them in a sealed container until dinner will leave the crunch a little soft and sad by evening. Not a disaster, just not the point. For the best version, bake them close to serving time and toss the salad at the last minute.
Storage & Reheating
If the salad is already dressed, it’s best eaten the day you make it. You can refrigerate leftovers, covered, but by the next day the iceberg will have wilted and the chickpeas will have lost their pep. I’ll still eat it standing at the kitchen counter for lunch, because I hate wasting food and because it still tastes good, but I’m not going to pretend it’s the same salad.
If you know you’ll have leftovers, keep the vinaigrette, chickpeas, and salad separately. The undressed lettuce mixture will hold in the refrigerator for a day or so, though the tomato can make things a little wet. Store the chickpeas at room temperature in a loosely covered container if you’re eating them later that same day. I would not reheat them; they’re better just used fresh. Trying to revive baked chickpeas in the microwave is a fool’s errand, and I say that with affection for fools, since I am frequently one.
The vinaigrette can be covered and refrigerated if needed. Let it sit out briefly and whisk again before using, because olive oil gets moody in the fridge.
Final Notes
There’s something about a salad with actual texture that makes dinner feel less like a compromise. Maybe that sounds dramatic for lettuce, but you know what I mean. A nice salad can reset a whole evening. Not fix it, exactly—nothing fixes a day when the garage door remote quits working and somebody has forgotten to mention they need poster board by tomorrow morning—but reset it a little.
Set this out with whatever else you’re making, or let it be dinner all by itself. Use the good Parmesan. Don’t dress it early. Sneak a chickpea off the tray when nobody’s looking, even though they’re technically for the salad.
Sometimes you make the fancy salad for the people already at the table.
Fancy Italian Salad
Ingredients Â
- 3 cups shredded iceberg lettuce
- 1 head Romaine lettuce finely sliced
- 1 cup English cucumber chopped
- 1/4 cup salami slices sliced into strips
- 1 Roma tomato finely diced
- 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese the good stuff if you can manage it
- 1 15-ounce can chickpeas drained well
- 1 tablespoon Parmesan cheese for the chickpeas
- 2 teaspoons olive oil for the chickpeas
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder for the chickpeas
- Kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste, for the chickpeas
- 1/4 cup olive oil for the vinaigrette
- 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
- 2 teaspoons dried oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder for the vinaigrette
- Kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste, for the vinaigrette
InstructionsÂ
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and set out a small baking tray, then drain the chickpeas very well so they can get nicely golden.
- Put the drained chickpeas in a bowl with 1 tablespoon Parmesan, 2 teaspoons olive oil, dried basil, and 1 teaspoon garlic powder, then toss until thoroughly coated and season lightly with kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper.
- Spread the chickpeas on the baking tray and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until golden and crisp-looking; they will firm up a bit as they sit.
- While the chickpeas bake, combine the shredded iceberg, finely sliced romaine, chopped English cucumber, salami strips, and diced Roma tomato in a large salad bowl.
- Add half of the 1/3 cup grated Parmesan to the salad bowl and reserve the other half for topping.
- In a separate small bowl, whisk together the 1/4 cup olive oil, red wine vinegar, dried oregano, and 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder, then season with kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste and set aside.
- When ready to serve, add about three-quarters of the baked chickpeas to the salad bowl along with the vinaigrette and toss until the leaves are lightly coated.
- Transfer the salad to a serving bowl or divide among four bowls, then scatter the reserved Parmesan and remaining chickpeas over the top and serve right away while the lettuce is crisp and the chickpeas are still warm-ish.