A thing is the sum of its parts. If the parts are stellar the whole can be a beautiful thing. Take Seven Layer Salad for example. An American creation of the 1950s borne out of someone’s need for “quick, tasty and feeds-a-crowd,” the salad has popped up at picnics, on home buffets and at community dinners ever since. Classically, it’s built in a glass dish and includes layers of chopped lettuce, tomato, hard-cooked egg, cucumber, sharp cheddar cheese, bacon, green onion, a thick mayo-sour-cream dressing and lots of sweet peas. The recipe’s provenance is thought to be Southern, but it doesn’t appear in my regional cooking tomes (Clementine Paddleford, Helen Corbitt, etc.) just community cookbooks where it was initially referred to as “Seven Layer Pea Salad.”
I’ve always loved the “green” scent of peas, their looks, their shape, their shoots, and how they “pop” when you bite them. But there are few recipes that really let peas shine. In this salad, they are at their best.
For the rest of the salad: A balance of crunchy and soft lettuces is nice and this is the perfect place to use heirloom tomatoess that may be “ugly” fruits, but are loaded with flavor. I like Persian or young small cucumbers in this salad and if you have chives in the garden, those are nice, too. For the topper: a batch of homemade mayonnaise blended with crème fraiche is lovely, garnished with fresh pea shoots. But I’m also including my recipe for a fabulous garlicky Green Goddess dressing, which has more “oomph” and is my family’s favorite with this salad.
- Six cups sweet peas, steamed just until al dente, and cooled OR frozen peas, thawed
- Two small heads romaine lettuce, cleaned well and chopped into bite-sized pieces
- Two small heads butter lettuce, cleaned well and torn into bite-sized pieces
- One large, or two small heirloom tomatoes, washed and chopped
- 4 Persian cucumbers, washed, peeled and cut into bite-sized pieces
- 3 large hard-cooked eggs, chopped
- ½ pound sharp cheddar cheese, grated to make about 2 cups
- 1 pound uncured hardwood smoked bacon, cooked, cooled and chopped
- 2 green onions diced OR ½ cup snipped chives
- 1 cup pea shoots for garnish
- Dressing
- 1/2 cup homemade mayonnaise (recipe follows) combined with 1/2 cup crème fraiche
- OR
- 1 cup Green Goddess Dressing
- Homemade Mayonnaise
- Makes 1 ½ cups
- 2 egg yolks
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp sugar
- ¾ tsp dry mustard
- a few grains freshly ground pepper
- dash paprika
- dash cayenne
- 1 Tbsp vinegar
- 1 Tbsp lemon juice
- 1 cup vegetable oil
- Green Goddess Dressing ingredients
- 1 clove garlic, finely grated
- 2 Tbsp anchovy paste
- 3 Tbsp finely-snipped chives
- 1 Tbsp lemon juice
- 1 Tbsp wine vinegar
- ½ cup sour cream
- 1 cup homemade mayonnaise (recipe above)
- 1/3 cup finely-chopped parsley
- Coarsely ground salt
- Coarsely ground black pepper
- Make mayonnaise: Combine egg, salt, sugar, mustard, pepper, paprika and cayenne. Add vinegar and lemon juice. Add oil in drops/ very slow stream, while beating in bowl of stand mixer until the mayonnaise has whipped into fluffy consistency. Refrigerate.
- Make crème fraiche/mayo dressing OR Green Goddess dressing: For the first option: Combine ½ cup of the mayonnaise with ½ cup crème fraiche. Whisk well until fluffy. Refrigerate. OR For the Green Goddess: combine 1 cup of the mayonnaise with Green Goddess Dressing ingredients to make Green Goddess Dressing
- Assemble Salad: Place 3 cups of peas in bottom of a large glass serving bowl or trifle dish. Combine chopped romaine and chopped butter lettuce; layer half of the lettuce over the peas in the bowl. Sprinkle chopped tomatoes over the lettuce. Sprinkle the chopped cucumbers over the tomatoes. Sprinkle the chopped egg over this layer. Add the remaining 3 cups of peas. Add the grated cheese and bacon. Add the remaining lettuce. Cover all with the dressing topper. (Your choice of homemade mayo with crème fraiche, or, Green Goddess. Sprinkle with the diced green onions or snipped chives. Garnish with pea shoots.
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