Olive Juice, I love you.

I wasn't kidding when I said I've wept into soups. I'm also quite serious when I say that the Earth has moved beneath me during a salad eating experience.

I dined on this ethereal salad at a fantastic local restaurant called Toro Bravo. It was made with radicchio, a dark purply lettuce not unlike red cabbage, but in the chickory family. It was dressed with Spanish olive oil and a snowfall of manchego cheese, and the crowning glory was a slice of toasted baguette spread with a delightful green olive tapenade which pulled the dish together phenomenally.

Never being one to stray from too much of a good thing, I decided to take the components and usher them to a main-dish level. I picked up some lovely, buttery Picholine olives (hailing from France) and made a relish, of sorts, with those and some capers and a spoonfull of whole grain dijon mustard for extra body and richness.

The foundation is toasted baguette slices rubbed with garlic. The radicchio is given a few turns in the very skillet in which the relish has been warmed, heaped atop the baguette, and then a poached egg enters the picture, and to really cover all the bases, I suggest a few generous shavings of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese.

The warm dressing on this dish adds such a nice effect- the briny nature of the olives, capers and mustard opens up into a very special kind of salty-sweet, and the olives become hearty and toothsome under the warmth. I add the egg for several reasons: 1) I love eggs. 2) I love eggs on salad and 3) when punctured with your fork, the yolk spills out and coats the radicchio in a way that is almost sexy, if you're willing to consider it as such.

Radicchio Salad with Warm Green Olive Dressing, Garlic Toast and Poached Egg

1 head Radicchio cabbage

1T Green olives, pitted and roughly chopped

1T capers, roughly chopped

1T brine from capers

1T Dijon mustard

2T good-quality olive oil

Baguette

Garlic cloves

1 egg per serving

Salt and pepper to taste

Split each head of radicchio in half lengthwise. Cut out core, slice each half in half once more, and separate leaves. Submerge in ice water (radicchio is rather bitter in taste and this process helps cut through some of that). Drain and dry completely.

Toast Baguette slices and rub with a clove of garlic on each side.

Warm oil in a large skillet on medium heat . Add mustard, followed by brine from capers. Reduce heat to low. Now would be a good time to poach your eggs. That's another blog post entirely, but I suggest the method found on WikkiHow.

Turn heat back up to medium-high. Place raddichio leaves in pan and give them a few quick turns and tosses to coat, allowing to soften up a bit before piling on top of baguette. Place poached egg on top, followed by any additional dressing from the pan and parmiggiano.

This is a flexible recipe and quantities can be adjusted to how many you are serving, or serving size. The components of this salad keep beautifully and can be put together in no time for a quick meal- just keep the dressing separate from the radicchio, set it on the stove when the mood strikes, toast your bread, poach your egg, toss it all together, grab a fork and tuck in.