Cape Cod Chopped Salad

I made this salad for a Christmas party I went to and it was a big hit. Decided to make it at home since the dressing is very easy and I have most of these items in my pantry.

The secret to this salad is BACON. I'm firmly in the Bacon Makes It Better club and bacon definitely makes salad better hands down.
The other secret is that maple syrup and orange juice tastes good together. I've never been an orange juice in the morning type of girl, but man, the combination sweet sour in the dressing is really nice.

So let's get all the salad ingredients together:


I didn't have bacon today, but I did have some pancetta. Same difference, right?


I was also supposed to use Granny Smith, but I had Fuji. Oh wells.


While the pancetta is frying up, I'm going to make the dressing. Here are the ingredients:

Note: you are supposed to use orange zest, but Joel ate the last orange the other day and I didn't realize it. Quickly substituted with some lemon zest.

Mix the dressing together. I used Ina's "good" olive oil, Olio Santo. It's kind of greenish, so that isn't all my camera's fault.


Pancetta is done. Oh man, I'm really excited for this salad now!


Before, this salad was just a mix of cheese, nuts, lettuce and salty meat.


Now, it is art. Art in a bowl that might be a tad too small for its contents. I tossed this verrry carefully.




The review:
How can this miss? It's a really good dressing. I can't say enough about it. You can pretty much throw anything you want into this salad and it would taste soooo good. I might try mandarin oranges or chicken next time. Absolutely delicious.