Wedge salad
A salad from American steakhouses built on an ingredient many cooks look down on: iceberg lettuce. It has a virtue that softer lettuces lack: a structure rigid enough for dressing to run down through the layers instead of sitting on top. That is why it is cut into a wedge through the core rather than torn: the core holds the leaves together and the construction stands up.
Your own work in that: 5 min.
- Bacon 12 min
- Dressing 10 min
- Lettuce 10 min
- Serving 5 min
Step by step
0 / 7 doneFry the bacon crisp
Cook the rashers starting in a cold pan, slowly, for 10–12 minutes, until the fat renders and the meat is dark and brittle. The cold start matters: the fat renders gradually and the bacon crisps evenly instead of scorching on the outside.
Ingredients: 1 pcs iceberg lettuce · 150 g bacon · 200 g cherry tomatoes · ½ pcs red onion · 3 tbsp chives
Mash half the cheese into the buttermilk
Mash half the cheese with a fork into the buttermilk, sour cream and mayonnaise until smooth. That half gives a creamy base with real flavour — without it the dressing would be a white sauce with lumps in it.
Ingredients: 150 g blue cheese · 100 ml buttermilk · 100 g sour cream · 60 g mayonnaise · ½ pcs lemon · 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce · ½ tsp black pepper
Half mashed in, half left in pieces.Add the rest of the cheese in chunks
Crumble in the other half in larger pieces and stir in the lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce and pepper. The chunks should stay perceptible — they are what separates a homemade dressing from a smooth shop-bought one. Chill the dressing for 10 minutes so it thickens.
Ingredients: 150 g blue cheese · 100 ml buttermilk · 100 g sour cream · 60 g mayonnaise · ½ pcs lemon · 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce · ½ tsp black pepper
Soak the onion in cold water
Slice the onion paper thin and cover with cold water for 10 minutes. Raw onion would dominate a salad this simple — rinsed, it stays crunchy and faintly sweet.
Ingredients: 1 pcs iceberg lettuce · 150 g bacon · 200 g cherry tomatoes · ½ pcs red onion · 3 tbsp chives
Cut the lettuce into wedges through the core
Remove the outer leaves and cut the head into four wedges, taking the knife through the core. A piece of core stays in each wedge and holds the leaves together — without it the salad collapses at the first fork.
Ingredients: 1 pcs iceberg lettuce · 150 g bacon · 200 g cherry tomatoes · ½ pcs red onion · 3 tbsp chives
Cut through the core — it holds the wedge together.Dry the lettuce thoroughly
Rinse the wedges and pat them dry with paper, between the leaves too. Water in the layers dilutes the dressing and makes it run to the bottom of the plate instead of clinging to the leaves.
Ingredients: 1 pcs iceberg lettuce · 150 g bacon · 200 g cherry tomatoes · ½ pcs red onion · 3 tbsp chives
Dress and load with toppings
Stand the wedges on plates, spoon over the dressing so it works down between the layers, and load with crumbled bacon, halved tomatoes, onion and chives. Serve at once, while the lettuce is still ice cold.
Ingredients: 1 pcs iceberg lettuce · 150 g bacon · 200 g cherry tomatoes · ½ pcs red onion · 3 tbsp chives
Before you start
The lettuce must be cold
Put the head in the fridge an hour before cutting. The temperature contrast — icy lettuce against warm bacon — is half the pleasure of this dish, and room-temperature iceberg tastes of nothing.
A strong cheese, not a mild one
This dressing carries a single flavour, so the cheese has to deliver it. Gorgonzola dolce is too mild; choose roquefort, stilton or gorgonzola piccante. A mild cheese just gives a rich white sauce.
Dressing to keep
Make a double batch — it keeps up to 5 days in the fridge and grows stronger by the day. It thickens when chilled, so loosen it with a spoonful of buttermilk before using.
