Gordon Ramsay’s rocket salad is peppery wild rocket with chicory, radicchio, toasted walnuts, Parmesan shavings and a punchy lemon and garlic dressing, ready in 10 minutes.
In Fast Food, Ramsay calls this his “Italian Leafy Salad with Walnut Dressing” and builds the dressing using a mortar and pestle: he coarsely grinds toasted walnuts together with garlic and lemon zest, then stirs in lemon juice, olive oil and freshly grated Parmesan. The texture is rough and chunky rather than smooth, which means you get small pieces of walnut and garlic caught in the leaves as you eat. It is nothing like a vinaigrette, and that is the point.
The food science is straightforward: toasting the walnuts drives off moisture and triggers the Maillard reaction, which creates hundreds of new flavour compounds that raw walnuts simply do not have. Grinding them with garlic releases the allicin in the garlic at the same time, so the two flavours fuse together in the mortar rather than sitting separately on the plate. This is why the dressing tastes like more than the sum of its parts.
Gordon Ramsay Rocket Salad
Course: Salads, Sides4
servings10
minutes10
minutesFrom Gordon Ramsay’s Fast Food, this Italian leafy salad pairs wild rocket, chicory and radicchio with a rough walnut, garlic and Parmesan dressing. A side salad with real substance.
Ingredients
2 heads of chicory, trimmed and finely sliced
1 small head of radicchio, trimmed
125g (4 oz) wild rocket
For the dressing:
125ml (4 fl oz) walnut halves, toasted
1 large garlic clove, peeled and grated
Grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
6 to 8 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 to 3 tbsp freshly grated Parmesan
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Directions
- Prepare the leaves: Finely slice the chicory and place it in a large salad bowl with the radicchio leaves and wild rocket.
- Make the dressing: Coarsely grind the toasted walnuts together with the garlic and lemon zest using a large mortar and pestle. Stir in the lemon juice, olive oil and seasoning to taste. The texture should be rough and chunky, not smooth.
- Dress and serve: Pour the dressing over the salad leaves and toss well. Scatter the grated Parmesan over the top and serve immediately.
FAQs
Why does Ramsay use a mortar and pestle for the dressing?
Grinding the walnuts and garlic by hand gives the dressing a rough, uneven texture that a blender or food processor cannot replicate. A machine turns it into a smooth paste, which coats the leaves too heavily and loses the little chunks of walnut that make each bite interesting. If you do not own a mortar, put the walnuts in a freezer bag and bash them with a rolling pin, then mash the garlic with the flat of a knife on a board. The goal is broken pieces, not powder.
Can you add pear and fennel to this salad?
Ramsay does exactly that in his Rocket, Fennel, Watercress and Pear Salad from Sunday Lunch, where he swaps the walnut dressing for a honey mustard vinaigrette and adds thinly sliced fennel soaked in ice water for crunch. The sweetness of the pear against the peppery rocket works well, especially before a rich main like duck or lamb. If you want to try it with this recipe, slice half a ripe Conference pear thinly and add it just before dressing so it does not brown.
How does this compare to Nigella Lawson’s rocket salad?
Nigella takes hers in a completely different direction by adding sesame oil and light soy sauce to the dressing alongside balsamic vinegar, which gives it an almost Asian depth. She also includes sliced apple and pear alongside the rocket and Parmesan. Ramsay’s version is more classically Italian: bitter leaves, sharp lemon, toasted walnuts. Both are excellent, but they solve different problems. Nigella’s is sweeter and more crowd-friendly. Ramsay’s is sharper and better before a heavy main course.
What should you serve this rocket salad with?
The bitter leaves and sharp dressing are designed to cut through rich food, so think along the lines of grilled steak, roast chicken, or a creamy pasta. It also works as a starter on its own with some crusty bread to mop up the walnut oil at the bottom of the bowl. For a fuller salad spread, pair it with his caprese salad as one is all about leaves and the other is all about tomato and cheese, so they complement rather than overlap.
Does rocket salad keep well?
Rocket wilts faster than almost any other salad leaf once dressed, so this is not a make-ahead dish. The dressed salad has about 20 minutes before it starts to collapse. However, the dressing itself keeps in a jar in the fridge for up to a week, and the toasted walnuts stay crunchy in a sealed container for several days. Wash and dry the leaves, store them separately in a bag with a piece of kitchen paper, then toss everything together only when you are ready to eat.
What is the difference between rocket and arugula?
They are the same leaf. Rocket is the British and Australian name, arugula is the American name, and rucola is the Italian original. In UK supermarkets you will find it labelled as rocket, usually in 80g or 100g bags near the watercress and spinach. Wild rocket has smaller, more deeply lobed leaves and a stronger peppery bite than the cultivated variety. Ramsay specifies wild rocket in this recipe, and the extra heat it brings is worth the small price difference. If you enjoy that peppery flavour, his tuna niçoise also pairs well with a handful of rocket scattered over the top. For more Italian salads from his books, see the full list.
