h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

These are the salads I eat time and time again.

I almost always use the following vinaigrette:

* 4 or 5 to 1 best quality olive oil to vinegar (usually white wine or balsamic)
* Salt
* Pepper (lots, has to be freshly ground and black)

First of all, two classic Italian salads (excellent starters):

Tre Colore

* Tomatoes (I think cherry tomatoes have the best flavour of the ones on offer in England, but in Italy all tomatoes are beyond what we can even begin to imagine over here)
* Mozarella (plaited buffalo mozarella is amazing if you can find it, it tends to be rather expensive though)
* Avocado
* Oil, vinegar (optional), salt and pepper, basil (optional)

Chop the tomatoes and avocado and rip the mozarella into whatever shapes and sizes appeal to you and arrange attractively on the plate . Throw over some torn basil if you're using it (I think basil is not traditional for this one). At this point, either serve as it is, making sure that there is oil, vinegar, salt and pepper available for people to season their own, or just make one of the dressings above and pour it on.

I can't remember the name of this next one, but it's another classic Italian salad.

* Mozarella
* Tomato
* Basil
* Oil, vinegar, S+P

As above, except basil is definitely not optional and there should be plenty of it.

The next salad is sort of generic, use any combination of the bacon, avocado and new potato, probably depending on what you have handy. Usually I eat these salads as a main course rather than as a starter. If I'm particularly hungry (and not putting potato in the salad itself), a baked potato halved, dripping with butter and lots of pepper (I like pepper) makes a nice accompaniment.

* Lettuce (I'm partial to a plain soft round lettuce or a Coz)
* Any combination of:
- bacon (diced and fried until slightly crisp)
- avocado, peeled and sliced / cut into whatever shape you like
- new potato, boiled to whatever texture you like to eat
* Vinaigrette (balsamic vinegar goes particularly well with bacon)

Just throw all the prepared ingredients together.

Salad number two is a Caprese, and balsamic vinegar makes it even more heavenly!