We marinate tender air-dried beef in lemon and olive oil and top it with spicy arugula and salty Parmesan to make this bresaola salad a delicious and elegant Italian first course.

Bresaola Salad with Arugula and Parmesan is the perfect starter for an Italian meal. It makes a fantastic first course for Grilled Eggplant Parmesan or Ciambotta (Italian Vegetable Stew). It’s beautiful, light and wakes up all of your tastebuds with umami, salty, spicy and lemony flavors. Don’t serve this salad as a side dish – it’s so delicious that it deserves to be the centerpiece of it’s own course.

I’ve been making this salad for decades and I always come back to it as one of my lifelong “winner” recipes.

Ingredients for Bresaola Salad

What is Bresaola?

Bresaola is an Italian air-dried salted beef aged two or three months, producing a dark red, almost purple color. Cut from the top round, bresaola is super lean and tender, with very thin lines of barely visible marbled fat. The delicacy originated in the Lombardi region of the Italian Alps.

I often describe bresaola as essentially “beef prosciutto.” Prosciutto, of course, is the famous Italian cured pork product that you see on antipasto platters and charcuterie boards. I personally love prosciutto but prefer the taste of bresaola. Mildly salty and slightly sweet, with touches of spice, bresaola is more tender than prosciutto. It also has much less fat and has none of the stringiness that prosciutto often has.

Find bresaola in your local Italian deli or international market. Ask for it thinly sliced and try to buy it on the same day that you will be serving the bresaola salad so it stays moist. If you can’t find it locally, you can order it shipped to your home. I love this Sliced Uncured Beef Wagyu Bresaola from Alef.

What olive oil should I use for this bresaola salad recipe?

High quality extra virgin olive oil is important to this bresaola salad that has so few flavoring ingredients. With olive oil, freshness is critical to flavor. Grocery store olive oils often were harvested years ago and then sit on shelves for many more months. These oils can grow stale, lose flavor and even turn rancid. Olives, like any other fruit, are at their peak in terms of flavor and nutrition when they are fresh. Look for olive oil that has has been harvested within the last year. Reputable, high quality producers print the harvest and release dates right on the label. These fresh oils can be very expensive, but there are some good buys out there if you look for them.

One example is this Fattoria Bini Extra Virgin Olive Oil from Tuscany (2021 Harvest, 2022 Release). It’s bursting with flavor and is peppery on the finish, and it’s not that much more expensive olive oils that you find in the supermarket

lemon juice

extra virgin olive oil
bresaola
baby arugula

celery
Parmigiano Reggiano (Parmesan) cheese
black pepper

See recipe card for quantities.

Instructions

Timing is important with this bresaola salad recipe. You can make the dressing ahead of time, but don’t marinate the meat until about 30 minutes (max) before you are ready to eat.

bresaola marinating in lemon juice and olive oil

Make the dressing. Whisk together the lemon juice and olive oil until emulsified. Decoratively place sliced bresaola around a serving dish, overlapping the slices slightly. Pour the dressing over the bresaola and coat evenly, using a brush or the back of a spoon if necessary. Cover with plastic wrap and marinate at room temperature for 20-30 minutes.

Meanwhile, place arugula and celery into a medium bowl. Tip the serving dish and pour the dressing from the bresaola directly into bowl with the arugula. (The bresaola stays on the dish!)

Toss the arugula and celery with the dressing and then arrange in the center of the serving dish with the bresaola. Shave Parmesan cheese on top of the salad and finish with a few grinds of black pepper. Serve immediately.