Had a great time assisting my former classmate Deana's 'Extreme Kitchen Makeover' class tonight. She's a talented chef and nutritionist - aside from just being a lovely person. Nutritional point: the more color (green, etc.) in your vegetables, the more valuable nutrients inside. On the down side of the equation: the lowly iceberg lettuce. Probably the ONLY lettuce readily available when I was growing up in the 70s. (Or maybe just all Mom got.)
I'm not going to argue about its nutritional value over Romaine or other lettuces - and it certainly doesn't hold the nouvelle cache of mesclun greens or arugula. But it does, I think, make a nice addition to certain salads (hello, Greek salad!), has a great crunchy texture, and - this is a hunch here - seems to keep in your fridge longer than other lettuces. I can tell you my friend Scott and I get all oogie at the sight of a wedge salad on a restaurant's menu.
The Wedge is retro...and it's yummy; cropping up on many steakhouse and restaurant menus once again. Couldn't be easier to make at home. Cut your head of iceberg into wedges, rinse them in cold water and shake off as much water as possible and dry them off while keeping the wedges intact. Drizzle some blue cheese dressing over them and sprinkle with crispy (real please!) bacon bits. Sprinkle some chopped fresh tomato and/or red onion around it, if you want some color. Try it. You won't be sorry. And do make your own blue cheese dressing. It's easy (most homemade salad dressings are) and will kick any bottled dressing's ass. You can probably find a slew of recipes for blue cheese dressing on the Net or in your cookbooks (but if you can't, let me know and I'll post one).
Nick Stellino of 'Cucina Amore' and 90s PBS cooking show fame, he of the even-then-outré samurai ponytail (where IS he now, anyway??) has a pasta recipe in his Glorious Italian Cooking that has chopped iceberg lettuce added to the sauce (with ham, leeks and mushrooms) and simmered, much like a green. Does the pasta dish scream "Taste of Iceberg!"? No. But it's tasty and it's another way to use any of the head left over from your wedge and I'm sure it provides some nutrional value over, oh, say the actual penne or whatever pasta you're using. I have yet to try this myself, but I have seen people grill a wedge of iceberg quickly to give it a nice smoky flavor and pretty-pretty grill marks, then dress it. Let's see your wimpy mesclun greens stand up to a few minutes on the grill.
Anyway...I'm just saying...iceberg lettuce needn't be relegated to food courts and sub shops. (Cue 'Breakfast Club' sountrack.) Don't you...forget about it...
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