agrodolce lentil salad with pancetta, feta and thyme

After picking up some tiny organic Puy (french green) lentils at Northey St markets a few weeks ago, I've been umming and ahhing over what to do with them and here's the result.

as always, all measurements are approximate.... taste as you go and change it as you see fit.

this is a juicy sweet and sour salad that's meaty enough to stand on it's own (though I ate mine with a crispy little veal schnitzel.)
It would also go down very well at a picnic.

for the lentils:
about 3/4 cup uncooked puy lentils (washed)
1 onion (quartered)
a few stalks of thyme
a few bay leaves
a bruised clove of garlic

all go into a saucepan.
Cover with plenty of cold water and bring to the boil.
Simmer covered for maybe 15-20 minutes until lentils are soft but not mushy.

Drain and remove all the extra bits, leaving only the lentils.

NB - at this point, you'd be hard pressed to pick the difference between these and a drained can of cooked lentils... do what you will with this information :)

For the salad bits:
cooked lentils
crumbled greek feta (a chunk about the size of an iphone)
fresh thyme (leaves from 4 or 5 sprigs)
big handful of torn flat-leaf parsley
handful of toasted pinenuts
5 slices of pancetta, crisped in the frypan and sliced roughly
5 french shallots - sliced and fried till sweet, creamy and golden in a bit of olive oil and more than a bit of butter
1 french shallot (raw) - sliced finely

mix this all in a bowl.

dress it all with...
juice of a lemon
sherry vinegar (a big splosh)
raspberry vinegar (the one i use is quite sweet)
a small glug of ev olive oil
juices from the frying of the shallots
salt and pepper

leave it for half an hour before eating to let the lentils suck up the flavours then devour with much gusto and take some to work the next day to torture your colleagues with.