BERRY RECIPES: Chef's Salad with Raspberries and Raspberry Vinaigrette . . . Fresh Raspberry Vinaigrette . . . Berry Tart

Chef's Salad with Raspberries and Raspberry Vinaigrette

4 cups cleaned and torn butter lettuce leaves

4 cups baby romaine leaves

1½ cups julienned cooked chicken

1 cup julienned cooked ham

2/3 cup julienned Gruyere cheese

3 hard-cooked eggs, peeled

2 cups treviso or Belgian endive, cut into a chiffonade (long, thin strips)

1 cup raspberries, lightly rinsed

¾ cup grape tomatoes, halved

3 tablespoons finely chopped green pistachios (optional)

Fresh raspberry vinaigrette (recipe follows)

Fix vinaigrette. Set aside in refrigerator.

Prepare butter and romaine lettuces and put into bowl large enough for tossing with dressing. Cover with paper towel and refrigerate. Prepare chicken and Gruyere; cover and refrigerate. Cut peeled eggs into quarters, cover and refrigerate. Cut treviso or endive into a chiffonade no more than an hour before serving. Refrigerate.

Just before serving, whisk dressing well and pour a few tablespoons over lettuce. Toss gently just until leaves are moistened. Spread onto large serving platter, or divide among dinner plates. Mound center with layers of chicken. Top with the chiffonade of treviso. Arrange eggs, raspberries and tomatoes around edge and drizzle with enough of remaining dressing to just moisten ingredients. Sprinkle pistachios over salad and serve.

Note: Treviso is a variety of radicchio.

Yield: Serves 4 as a main dish.

Fresh Raspberry Vinaigrette

½ cup fresh raspberries, coarsely crushed

2 tablespoons shallot, sliced paper thin

2 teaspoons minced fresh thyme leaves

1½ teaspoons turbinado or light brown sugar

½ teaspoon kosher salt

¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

¼ cup rice vinegar

¼ cup extra virgin olive oil

¼ cup vegetable oil

Briefly rinse raspberries and shake off excess water. Put into a small bowl and crush coarsely with a fork. Rinse the shallot with cold water. Put into a paper towel and squeeze out excess moisture. Set aside.

Put thyme, sugar, salt, pepper and vinegar in a bowl and whisk to blend. Slowly whisk in oils until the vinaigrette is emulsified. Stir in the raspberries and shallot, blending well. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Yield: About 1¼ cups.

Note: Serve with a sweetened whipped cream, flavored with Kirsch or vanilla.

Berry Tart

TART DOUGH:

1 cup all-purpose flour (or ¾ cup white plus ¼ cup whole wheat pastry flour)

1 tablespoon organic brown sugar

¼ teaspoon salt

1 stick cold unsalted butter, cut into small chunks

1 tablespoon cold water

¼ teaspoon vanilla

¼ teaspoon almond extract

BERRIES:

2 to 3 cups berries

3 tablespoons raspberry jam or red currant jelly

Confectioners' sugar

Pulse the flour, sugar and salt in a food processor to combine. Add butter and pulse until the bits are no larger than a baby pea. Combine the water, vanilla and almond extract, then drizzle it in and pulse just until large, moist crumbs form.

Gather dough into a mass, shape into a disk and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Roll tart dough into a 10-inch round. Ease it into a 9-inch tart pan (or smaller individual pans) using excess dough to build up sides to ¼-inch thickness. Chill the pan while you preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Line tart pan with foil and pie weights and bake for 15 to 20 minutes. Remove foil, then bake until golden, 12 to 15 minutes more.

Lay berries on a towel. Heat jam with a few teaspoons of water to thin it, then press through a sieve. Brush half on tart shell. Then fill the shell with berries, wedging them close together in a single layer. Bake 5 minutes.

Reheat the remaining jam, then dab a little over each berry. Remove tart from pan, dust edges with confectioners' sugar and serve.

Yield: 1 9-inch tart.