Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Wide shallow serving plate or bowl
• •Small jar or bowl for the dressing

Instructions

1. 1

   Pod the peas

   Pod the peas into a bowl. Eat a few as you go. If they're sweet enough to eat standing at the counter, they're right for this salad. If they taste starchy or dull, they've been off the plant too long and you'd be better off blanching them briefly in boiling water, thirty seconds, no more, then straight into cold water. But fresh peas, truly fresh, need nothing at all.

   This only works with peas that are worth eating raw. If you can't find them fresh in the pod, frozen petit pois defrosted under cold running water are honest and good. Better a frozen pea at its best than a fresh one past it.
2. 2

   Make the dressing

   Put the mustard and vinegar in a small bowl or jar. Add a pinch of salt. Stir until smooth, then pour in the olive oil in a slow stream, whisking or shaking as you go. It should come together into something thick and glossy, the colour of pale honey. Add a squeeze of lemon. Taste it on a lettuce leaf, not from a spoon. You're dressing leaves, not soup. Adjust. More salt, more acid, more oil. You'll know when it's right.

3. 3

   Prepare the lettuces

   Quarter the little gems lengthways through the root so the leaves hold together. If they're small, halve them. Wash them gently and dry them properly. A wet lettuce dilutes everything and the dressing slides off instead of clinging. Lay them cut-side up on a wide plate or shallow bowl. You want them arranged loosely, not piled.

4. 4

   Assemble the salad

   Scatter the peas over and between the lettuce wedges. Tear the mint leaves roughly and drop them in. Add the dill in feathery pieces, and snip the chives over the top. Spoon the dressing over everything, letting it pool in the cut faces of the lettuce and settle around the peas. Don't toss it. This isn't that kind of salad. It should look like a garden on a plate, a bit wild, a bit careless, everything landing where it lands. Season with a final grind of black pepper and bring it to the table as it is.

Chef Tips

• •The peas make or break this. Taste them before you commit. A raw pea should be sweet and milky, with a pop when you bite through the skin. If it's floury or bland, it has been too long since the plant and no amount of dressing will save it.
• •Little gems are sturdier than they look. Quarter them through the root so the wedges hold together and you get layers of leaf to spoon the dressing into. Don't separate the leaves. The architecture is part of the pleasure.
• •Make more dressing than you think you need. It keeps in a jar in the fridge for a week and improves everything: cold potatoes, grilled courgettes, a piece of fish. A good vinaigrette is one of the most useful things you can have on hand.
• •If you're serving this at a barbecue, dress it at the last moment. The lettuce goes limp quickly once the vinaigrette hits it, and you want that contrast between the sharp, cold crunch of the leaves and whatever is hot off the grill.

Advance Preparation

• •The dressing can be made a day or two ahead and kept in a sealed jar in the fridge. Give it a good shake before using.
• •Pod the peas up to a few hours in advance and keep them covered in the fridge. Prepare the herbs and lettuce no more than an hour ahead, wrapped in a damp tea towel to stay crisp.
• •Do not assemble until you are ready to eat. This is a salad that lives in the moment.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 130g)