Spicy Italian Salad
With a flavorful vinaigrette, artichokes, Parmesan, olives and summer sausage, this Spicy Italian Salad is full of flavor. Just say “no” to boring salads!
My siblings and I discovered this Spicy Italian Salad years ago, while planning a special Christmas Brunch. With a homemade vinaigrette and tasty summer sausage, it delivered a tart and spicy bite that set it above your ordinary salad. It soon became a family favorite.
The source was a Better Homes and Gardens cookbook, from which we got a number of special recipes. This was back in the day when everyone used cookbooks!
Alas, after enjoying this for years, I switched over to eating all organic grass-fed beef. And since grass-fed organic summer sausage was nearly impossible to find, I feared I’d never eat my Spicy Italian Salad again.
But that’s the nice thing about change. A decade ago I found a businessman turned rancher who converted a former Catholic retreat into an organic farm (Waseda Farms). And besides the typical cuts I got in my beef quarter, he had lots of “fun” items like German Bratwurst and (drum roll) summer sausage!
And Spicy Italian Salad was back on the menu!
What Makes This a Winner
Flavorful. With a homemade vinaigrette and tasty toppings, this salad is loaded with flavor!
Easy. Just whisk together a dessing, toss with lettuce and add a few toppings.
Healthy. Of course salad is healthy! And isn’t it nice when you want to eat your veggies!
What You’ll Need
Dressing Ingredients
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Red Wine Vinegar. You may substitute white wine or apple cider vinegar and/or use part balsamic.
• Dressing flavorings: fresh garlic (can sub garlic powder), dry mustard, dried thyme, salt, pepper
Spicy Italian Salad Ingredients
• Lettuce. I used Romaine because the organic Romaine has looked good lately, but go with any nice lettuce.
• Marinated artichoke hearts.
• Summer sausage. Go with grass-fed organic if you can find it.
• Black or kalamata olives. The original recipe called for black olives, I used kalamata for the additional flavor they provide.
• Parmesan cheese. If you can shred your own, you are more likely to avoid additives.
Special Tools
No special tools are needed!
Step by Step Directions
You start by cutting up the salad ingredients as needed.
Whisk together the dressing ingredients.
Toss the lettuce with dressing.
Top with the toppings and serve
How to Serve
This is a very versatile salad. It is perfect to lead off an informal or a formal dinner and equally at home for lunch or brunch.
Because it has a level of heartiness, this is a great salad to pair with a soup or half sandwich for a light meal. Or serve simply with some cheese and Focaccia Bread!
Variations
For a vegan version, use pepperoncini instead of the summer sausage and use vegan cheese.
Preparation and Leftovers
You won’t want to dress the salad until shortly before serving because it wilts quickly after that. But to make preparation quick, make the dressing the day before, cut up all of your ingredients and refrigerate. Then right before dinner assemble the salad.
Likewise, leftovers don’t keep well. So if I won’t finish it, I prep everything for the full salad, but dress half with half the dressing and toppings. I then refrigerate the rest and the next day, quickly make the rest of the salad. Fresh and perfect!
And for more treasured cookbook recipes, check out the list below!
Cookbook Recipes
- Cantuccini Toscani from Karen’s Kitchen Stories
- Caramelized Onion and Goat Cheese Canapes from Family Around the Table
- Ladyfinger Ice Cream Cake (Temple de Glacé) from That Recipe
- Marcus Samuelsson’s Quick Pickled Cucumbers from Palatable Pastime
- Pasta Primavera from Hezzi-D’s Books and Cooks
- Simple Ground Beef Tamales from A Kitchen Hoor’s Adventures
- Spicy Italian Salad from Art of Natural Living
- Taco shells and Cheese from Jen Around the World
We share Recipes From Our Dinner Table! Join our group and share your recipes, too! While you’re at it, join our Pinterest board, too!

Spicy Italian Salad
Ingredients
Dressing:
- 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon thyme
- 1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
- 1 clove garlic minced
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
Salad:
- 6-8 cups lettuce torn in bite sized pieces
- 8 ounce artichoke hearts drained and quartered
- 1/2 cup summer sausage sliced & quartered
- 1/4 cup black or kalamata olives sliced
- 2 Tablespoons shredded Parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Combine dressing ingredients in a medium bowl. Whisk until well blended.
- In a large bowl, toss lettuce with dressing. Arrange remaining ingredients on top.
- Serve and enjoy!
Nutrition
- Steak Diane in Mushroom Brandy Sauce
- Healthy Breakfast Veggie Scramble
Since bread and cheese add-ons were suggested, I made garlic croutons and added diced cheese to the salad. Perfect. The dressing is spot on and will use this recipe for future salads.
Sounds perfect John! And that’s more incentive for me to resurrect the garlic croutons of my youth!
I love everything spicy so this salad is definitely the salad of my dreams!
Definitely not a boring salad!
What a terrific starter! We’d probably serve larger servings as our entire dinner. Really nice — thanks. (BTW, this may be a duplicate comment — I got timed out when I submitted my first one.)
I took care of the duplicate John–and yes, we’ll eat this as a tasty dinner salad too!
Sounds perfect! It’s like a bowl of antipasto!
Indeed! And we know how good antipasto is!
I think I have the same cookbook. Everything is soooo good!
We got so many good recipes from that before the internet and I still go back to some of them!
This looks like the perfect weekday lunch.
That’s a great idea–I have some sausage left frozen and I need some lighter lunches since I’m still recovering from the holidays!
This is my kind of salad! Yum!
Thanks!
Yum. I love the idea of the vegan version with pepperoncini (and maybe some sun dried tomatoes).
I’ll add sun-dried tomatoes to anything Tammy! Good to hear from you!
This sounds like an amazing salad…and with the benefit of that wonderful summer sausage (that I can almost taste, btw)…it’s perfection!
It may not be a healthy salad, Inger but it sure sounds good! What an interesting way to spend a day. My Amish friend Katie has slowly been adding “beef stock” on her farm. The learning factor involved with the caring and feeding of grass fed beef is more complicated than it sounds.
Thanks for sharing…
You know with the sausage being grass-fed and organic (and not huge quantities of it), I actually consider this salad healthy again! Interestingly, regarding your friend, one of the comments that Tom made was that he considers himself a grass farmer, because the health of his herd is so dependent on the quality of his fields.
Love summer sausages. Sounds delicious!
I am so happy to have found some that I’ll eat again!