Cervelas Sausage & Emmental Salad

📝 Ingredients

• 2 cervelas sausages (about 100 g each)
• 80 g Emmental, in a block
• 6 gherkins (about 60 g)
• ½ red onion (about 60 g)
• ½ lettuce (about 150 g leaves)
• 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
• 1 tbsp white wine vinegar
• 2 tbsp rapeseed oil
• 4 slices of wholemeal bread (about 30 g each)
• Salt, black pepper

🍴 Utensils

• Mixing bowl
• Chopping board
• Paring knife
• Whisk
• Salad spinner

📖 Steps

1. Make the vinaigrette straight in the salad bowl: whisk the mustard with the vinegar, a small pinch of salt and some pepper, then drizzle in the oil, whisking constantly, until the dressing is slightly thick and smooth.
2. Remove the skin from the cervelas by slitting it lengthways with the tip of a knife, then pulling it off: it comes away easily. Halve each sausage lengthways, then cut into half-moons about 5 mm thick.
3. Cut the Emmental into sticks about 5 mm thick and 4 cm long. Pieces that are too thick would overpower each bite: they should be roughly the same size as the cervelas pieces.
4. Peel the half red onion and slice it very thinly into half-moons. To mellow its sharpness, soak it in a bowl of cold water for 5 minutes, then drain and pat dry with kitchen paper.
5. Slice the gherkins into thin rounds. Add the cervelas, Emmental, onion and gherkins to the salad bowl, toss to coat well in the vinaigrette and leave to marinate in the fridge for 10 minutes.
6. Meanwhile, separate the lettuce leaves, wash them in cold water and spin them dry thoroughly: wet leaves dilute the vinaigrette. Tear them by hand into bite-sized pieces.
7. Cut the slices of wholemeal bread in half. Just before serving, add the lettuce to the salad bowl and toss gently, lifting the salad from underneath: if it sits in the vinaigrette, the lettuce wilts within minutes.
8. Taste and only add salt if needed, as the cervelas and gherkins are already salty. Divide the salad between two plates, add a grind of black pepper and serve with the wholemeal bread.