making a salad of wilted bitter greens

Spring is here and that means dandelion greens coming up...in our backyard. Picked a few handfuls of the youngest, tenderest leaves, washed them very thoroughly and made this salad inspired by the recipe for "frisee lardons" in Bourgain's Les Halles Cookbook, the chapter on dandelion greens in Serious Pig, and a recipe in Kasper's The Italian Country Table.

• Put clean, dry bitter greens in a bowl: dandelion, cress, curly endive ("frisee"), arugula, or the like. Allow a very generous handful per person (pp).
• Fry pieces of smokey bacon ("lardons") or pancetta in some olive oil until crisp, about 2 oz pp. Set aside the bacon and pour off (and save!) all but about 1 tbsp of bacon fat + olive oil pp.
• Add some minced garlic and a fair amount of thinly sliced French shallot or red onion to the pan and saute until softened. The shallot/onion plays an important role in this salad because it holds a lot of heat, which helps wilt the greens. The subtle sweetness also offsets the bitterness of the greens.
• Add about 1 tbsp red wine vinegar pp to the hot pan, stir and pour everything over the greens. Toss in the bacon and season with salt and pepper.