St. Anselm’s Iceberg Wedge Salad

I cannot give enough kudos for this recipe. This takes a normally ultra rich starter into the realm of frequent enjoyment without feeling like a splurge. Cheese, bacon, and a thick piquant dressing. It sounds so hedonistic, but it's truly a judicious amount of these luxury ingredients....it's the dressing that won me over. Thick rich mouthfeel, but very light on the actual fat...1 tb. per person! You can easily make the dressing in advance and rewarm at serving. Loved this.

The recipe for the dressing looks nearly like what we make out here in the Midwest as a dressing for spinach salad. Also makes a splendid dressing for German potato salad.

If your lettuce was bitter, it was probably old. Also, try removing the root end of the iceberg (that is bitter) and cutting it into smaller segments. It will absorb the dressing better.

It's almost impossible to find organic iceberg, and since lettuce is on the EWG's dirty dozen list, going to try this with hearts of romaine.

Definitely cut the round iceberg into eighths, not quarters! Quarters were too ungainly and it was hard to get a perfect ratio of lettuce to flavored elements.

One way to remove the core of iceberg lettuce that is easy (and somehow especially gratifying) is to take the whole lettuce and rap it hard, core-side down, on your counter. Then turn it over and remove the core easily with your fingers--it should pop out.

Great blue cheese dressing recipe. I vegetarian-ized it by using Morningstar Bacon Stripe, and adding extra evoo after the veggie bacon (which doesn't really render any fat) cooked through. I also increased the vinegar and dijon quantity while reducing the amount of sugar.

Organic people use whole Romaine Leaves. Makes a great looking plate. I've seen Caesar Salad made this way in restaurants.

Dressing was a little too sweet for my taste. Don't know if I'll make it again but if I do, I'll cut back on the sugar.

So very funny, after all the years that iceberg lettuce was totally déclassé, that it is now showing up in the finest of restaurants! Yes, there really are times when this crispy white stuff is a good foil for other ingredients.

I use hearts of romaine for this, some applewood smoked thick bacon (which I probably could live on if I needed to) and the chopped parsley. So good. Dressed it with Cindy's Buttermilk Dressing. Doing it again tonight actually. Didn't need the blue cheese with this dressing.

To core the lettuce hold it in your hand with the core down and then smack it on the counter. That will loosen the core and you can just twist it out.

So... I made this. For some reason I kept reading the cider vinegar as red wine vinegar, so that's what I used. The salad underneath it was not a wedge of iceberg with blue cheese. I used a second helping of it, warm, as a sauce for steamed bok choi. It was good, though the consistency, in both preparations, which was gravy-like (I guess I could have thinned it more), made it something I might not be moved to make again. Ambivalent! Would love to know what others think!

This salad dressing is exactly the same dressing i've been making for hot German potato salad, for over 50 years. It's delicious on those hot sliced potatoes, with a good sprinkling of the bacon and onion (no cheese). I did not find it inspiring as a salad dressing, hard to make that transition. The bacon fat, so good on hot sliced potatoes did not come over as well on the lettuce. I won't be making this again.

variation on iceberg wedge salads that seem to be in vogue again. this was good, but most importantly easy to tweak to your own taste. found it's best to keep dessing on the thinner side with the rich blue cheese.