I grew up just a few blocks from chef Nancy Silverton’s famed Pizzeria Mozza in Los Angeles, and much of the menu remains seared in my memory.
The wood-fired pies are some of the best I’ve ever eaten (high praise now that I’ve lived in New York for more than a decade), and the butterscotch budino is transcendent. But the recipe I cling to the most — in no small part because it is so replicable at home — is Nancy’s Chopped Salad. And I’m not the only one. It originally appeared in The Mozza Cookbook in 2011, and since then, many iterations have popped up, including from Smitten Kitchen and Food52.
I make Nancy’s Chopped quite often, sometimes sticking to the script, other times swapping ingredients with what I have on hand. The constant is the dressing, which is so laden with dried oregano that you might think it’s a mistake. But the surfeit of herbs is what makes it genius.
For this version, I turned the salad into a wrap. I’m actually somewhat wrap-averse; I almost always prefer a proper sandwich. But the craze of the Caesar salad wrap turned me into a convert, at least a bit — and I had a hunch that Nancy’s would lend itself equally well to being bundled inside a large tortilla. (Admittedly, my wrapping skills are not great, so I prefer to make two slightly less-stuffed wraps — which is also, I find, the perfect amount for dinner.)
Start by preheating the oven to 375 degrees. Drain and rinse 1 can of chickpeas. Pat them dry. Dump them onto a quarter sheet pan, drizzle with extra-virgin olive oil, and season with kosher salt. Cook the chickpeas for 20 to 25 minutes, until they’re golden-brown and sizzling. In Nancy’s recipe, the chickpeas are raw. But I like them crispy — akin to the croutons you get in a Caesar wrap, a crucial textural component.
While the chickpeas are cooking, make the dressing. Grate 1 small garlic clove into a small bowl. Add 2 teaspoons of dried oregano, ½ teaspoon of kosher salt, and freshly cracked black pepper. Stir everything together; the mixture will be thick. Add 2 teaspoons of lemon juice and 1 tablespoon of red wine vinegar. Whisk again. Slowly stream in 2 tablespoons of olive oil, whisking as you go. For other salads, I don’t mind mixing the oil and vinegar together more haphazardly so that it becomes a broken dressing — one that isn’t emulsified. But doing it bit by bit here provides the benefit of a creamier consistency, which will ensure that everything gets evenly coated.
Take the chickpeas out of the oven and let them cool.
Meanwhile, chop 2 cups of lettuce into fine ribbons or ½-inch pieces. Whatever shape you prefer is fine, you just don’t want them to be too big. Nancy likes a mix of iceberg and radicchio, and romaine also works nicely. Put that into a big bowl.
Thinly slice 1 small shallot and cut ¼ cup of cherry or grape tomatoes into quarters. Finely slice 2 small pepperoncini, which should be about a heaping tablespoon. Add all of that to the bowl.
Cut 1.5 ounces of salami into chunks, about the size of your quartered tomatoes (or, if you prefer, use pre-sliced meat and simply cut the rounds into fours). Cut 2 ounces of provolone to the same size. I like the sharp stuff that comes in a block — not the pre-sliced-for-sandwiches variety. Measure a heaping ½-cup of now-crispy chickpeas. Add everything to the bowl.
Pour the dressing over the salad and toss.
Lay a 10- or 12-inch flour tortilla on a smooth surface. Pile in half of your filling, pinch the sides in, and roll it up. Keep the sides pinched the whole time so that the wrap is as snug as possible. Repeat with a second tortilla.
You now have the perfect summer dinner — crunchy and bright — the absence of a decadent butterscotch budino notwithstanding.
