Butter lettuce salad with mustard-Shallot vinaigrette

Included in our farmers’ market “Best of the Market” bags recently were beautiful heads of organic butter lettuce from Nunes Farms. Medical center employees too busy to shop had these bags filled with goodies including the lettuces delivered to them by co-workers in their departments. Getting one of these bags is like getting a present every Friday instead of having to wait for some holiday your family celebrates. As what happens often when shopping at farmer’s markets, you may not know what you are going to do with the fruits and veggies you bring home until there’s time to think about it around dinner time. There’s a great new book of one-plate salad meals and pairings of produce with dressings by the well known cookbook author and chef, Joyce Goldstein, called “Mediterranean Fresh”. She gave me permission to share some of her recipes on this site. To go with my fresh butter lettuces, I chose a mustardy vinaigrette which was used to marinate warm toasted walnuts chunks straight out of the oven and to dress the lettuce. The addition of farm fresh cucumber rounded out this excellent salad.