Friday, March 11, 2011

Bibb Lettuce and Gorgonzola Salad


It seems like there's a big craze for bibb salad in the culinary scene. About 5 of the last 7 restaurants I've recently been to had a bibb salad on the menu. This is great because I love bibb lettuce. It's really light and carries flavours well. It's also the perfect appetizer salad as it doesn't fill you up before your main. 

That said, one pet peeve I have with these salads is that they're often under-dressed. I don't like my salad drenched in dressing but I don't want it dry either. Which leads me to another criticism- why do so many restaurants pay such little attention to their salad?? If I'm spending good money on my salad I don't want it wilted, under-dressed, overdressed or bland. I feel like salads are often shunned when they should be treated with as much care as the tuna tartar! 

I ordered a bibb salad on Wednesday and only the top layer was dressed... Annoyed, I went to the grocery store and corrected their wrong. Because bibb salad's are stacked, it's important to drizzle dressing on each leaf.. I made my own and was in bibb heaven!

Ingredients:
7 leaves of bibb 
1 teaspoon whole grain mustard
1 teaspoon dijon mustard 
1 teaspoon finely diced shallot...very finely diced..
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon canola oil
1/2 teaspoon honey
Gorgonzola cheese (however much you like)
1/4 teaspoon salt and a dash of pepper

Method:
Wash each leaf of lettuce and pat dry with a paper towel. Whisk all the remaining ingredients apart from the cheese together. Lay the largest leaf on a plate and conservatively drizzle some dressing- don't cover it with dressing, just a little will do. Keep on stacking and drizzling until you get to your smallest piece of lettuce. Sprinkle with Gorgonzola or just have a chunk of it on the side...

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