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Recipe: Red Butter Lettuce Salad with Roasted Grapes and Balsamic-Glazed Pecans

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Red Butter Lettuce Salad

Red Butter Lettuce Salad with Roasted Grapes and Balsamic-Glazed Pecans

This salad is filled with purple and red ingredients: red butter lettuce, roasted red grapes, concentrated balsamic vinegar, and thinly sliced shallots. It not only looks stunning, but it also tastes complex, dark, and sweet. Roasting grapes does something wonderful to their flavor - it makes them taste a little bit like red wine.

Serves 4 as a salad course

½ pound red grapes
2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
¼ cup balsamic vinegar
½ cup pecans
1½ tablespoons very thinly sliced shallot
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 red butter lettuce head, washed and dried
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Use scissors to snip the grapes into small clusters. Place them on a baking sheet and toss gently with 2 teaspoons olive oil. Broil for about 8 minutes, flipping the clusters once or twice, until the grapes are nicely browned in a few places.

Meanwhile, pour the balsamic into a small pot and bring it to a boil over medium-high heat. Cook the balsamic until it reduces in volume by half, about 3 minutes. Let cool slightly, then stir in the pecans and a pinch of salt.

In a small bowl, combine the shallot, lemon juice, and ¼ teaspoon salt. Let the shallot soak and soften in the lemon juice for a few minutes, then stir in the remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil.

Place the lettuce in a large bowl, season it with salt and pepper, and toss in the shallot dressing. Add the balsamic-glazed pecans and toss well. Divide the salad among 4 plates. Remove the grape stems and scatter the grapes over the salads. Or, serve a few grape clusters on top of each salad and advise your dinner guests to avoid the stems. It's a little more effort on their part, but I think the grapes look beautiful in clusters. Plus, eating grapes from the stem feels decadent.

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