Bon Appétit's Radicchio Salad with Sourdough Dressing

Author Notes

If you are a person who likes freshly baked bread, I would bet you're also a person plagued by forgotten heels of baguettes and boules skidding toward fossildom on the counter. You're always looking for more ways to keep up, especially ones that will weave into your diet subtly, that don't feel like another meal made of bread. Bon Appétit editors Dawn Perry and Claire Saffitz developed a way to plump up a spare vinaigrette, without getting cream or mayo or egg yolks involved -- so you can serve it to your vegan friends (and young children, the pregnant and infirm, and anyone else you don't feel comfortable subjecting to your own cavalier attitudes about raw egg). After a few quick pulses in a food processor and a soak with vinegar, garlic, mustard, and water, the bread bits soften. Then, as you blend in the olive oil, they smooth out into a rich emulsion, like an extra-punchy white gazpacho. The bread contributes not just thickening strength, but flavor. Here, the creamy tang of sourdough bounces nicely off of bitter radicchio, but you could harness pumpernickel or rye or rosemary focaccia in the same way, making not-boring salads that don't need much more. Adapted slightly from Bon Appétit (December, 2014) —Genius Recipes