Lara's Dinner Party (Part 5, Truffled Autumn Salad)

This is a really easy salad that is light and could be in some distant galaxy be described as healthy but still fills and warms you up like you need Autumn dishes to do. All of the flavours are strong and work brilliantly with another. You should only prepare this a few minutes before you serve, you can cook and chop the ingredients beforehand but don't dress or assemble it until you're about to serve it as it will go soggy and the elements in the salad will lose their texture. There are no measurements really required here, just use about equal amounts of bacon, figs and dolcelatte.
The word 'Autumn' in the title is a little misleading as you could really make this anytime, I just think the oaky browns and warming tastes of this are quintessentially Autumnal. If you were going to do it in Summer, you may not even need to caramelise the figs as they'd probably be sweet enough already, just add a bit of balsamic vinegar into the dressing.
1)Slowly cook a few rashers of good quality smoked bacon until they have dried out and gone very crispy. This crispness works as the crunch in the salad, so you don't need croutons.
2)Chop some dolcelatte (or any blue cheese like stilton, roquefort, or a sharp goat's cheese) into small-ish chunks and keep in the fridge so they don't soften too much.
3)In the pan you cooked the bacon, cook some maple syrup and balsamic vinegar until reduced and sticky but not burnt. Add some quartered figs and cook in there for about a minute until they soak up the honey and vinegar and caramelise a tiny bit. Only a minute or so as you don't want them mushy. In place of figs you could use pears, apples or even quince but just poach it first. If you're going to go for pears, and they do work very well, don't bother peeling or stalking them, chop them as they are and throw them in the pan.
4)Prepare a ripe avocado by peeling it, removing the stone and slicing it.
5)To make the dressing, combine 80ml of extra virgin olive oil and the juice of the lemon you rinded from Part 2 of the dinner party, a pinch of sea or rock salt, a tablespoon of wholegrain mustard and I know this seems like a posh and unnecessary ingredient but if you can, add a small teaspoon of white truffle oil to add a delicious musky garlic flavour.
6)I am incredibly lazy so used a bag of peppery salad leaves, rocket or watercress is a good bet, and a few bags of just mild mixed leaves. Toss all the other ingredients into the salad well and let the guest serve their own salad dressing.