Matt's Spinach Salad

The first time my youngest stepson had this salad he about swooned.  Now, swoon probably isn't a great word to apply to a mid-20's young man.  But, it's the closest description I can come up with.  I'll never again have a spinach salad without thinking about Matt.  He's the kid who'll eat anything but beans.  The first time we took him to a restaurant after I'd started dating his dad, he ordered lamb.  I was in shock.  A teenager who ordered lamb.  This is a kid who knows how to eat!  So, here's to you Matt!


My mother's mother used to make hot bacon salad dressing.  Didn't almost everyone's grandmother?  But, Matt didn't remember ever having it before.  To me it was an old family recipe that I rarely made because it was so wicked.  Now, I mostly make it with olive oil to keep away from the bad fat from bacon.  I still like to put a bit of bacon in the salad though.  When I made this, I had a container of diced pancetta that either needed to be used or frozen.  Since I'm trying to take out of the freezer rather than put in, into the dressing it went.


Matt's Spinach Salad
serves 4


Ingredients:
8 oz box button mushrooms, sliced
olive oil
4 eggs, hardcooked
2 large onions, thinly sliced
1 T flour
4-8 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled (number depends on how wicked you want to be!)
bag of baby spinach
olive oil
red wine vinegar
sugar
celery seeds

Directions:
Saute the mushrooms in a little olive oil. 

Saute the onions in another pan.  You can do both in the same pan but I don't like the way the moisture from the mushrooms tends to keep the onions from browning a bit.  When the onions are nicely softened and a bit brown, mix the mushrooms in then add about a tablespoon more of olive oil to the skillet.  (Here's where I tossed in the package of diced pancetta.) 

Let it heat through, then sprinkle the flour over everything.  Stir well and allow the flour to cook for a few minutes.  Add the rest of the dressing ingredients:  vinegar, sugar and celery seeds.  I confess I didn't measure here...  Once the dressing is sweet/sour to your taste, allow it to thicken. 

Now, it's time to put the salads together.  Put a bed of spinach on each plate.  Top it with the onion and mushroom dressing.  The put a sliced hardcooked egg on each salad and top with crumbled bacon.  You can see in my photo that I did mine with the egg below the onions and mushrooms.  It just doesn't look as pretty!