A staple of blue-plate specials in diners around the US, wedge salads aren’t fancy, but there’s something inexplicably rewarding about sinking a steak knife through the crisp layers of iceberg lettuce and bringing a bite of the chilled lettuce drizzled with rich, creamy blue cheese dressing to your lips. Speckled with savory bits of blue cheese and crunchy bacon, the layers of textures and flavors bely its undeniably cheap roots.
As you might have guessed, I’m a big fan of wedge salads, but I often find myself wishing for something just a little sweet to contrast the salt cheese and bacon. I recently found myself with more blueberries than I knew what to do with, and adding them to the plate not only made for a great photo, the sweet tangy berries took this humble wedge salad to another level.
If there’s anything to dislike about this salad, it’s usually the blue cheese dressing. Whether it’s the visible mold or the pungent funk, I know there are a lot of people out there that just can’t handle blue cheese. I was definitely in that camp at one point, but like many things, it’s an acquired taste. To make this dressing more palatable to blue cheese novices, I use a blend of blue cheese with Marscarpone cheese. In addition to adding creaminess and body to the dressing, the Marscarpone rounds out the funky edge that blue cheese can have. If however, you’re a die-hard blue cheese fanatic, by all means, skip the Marscarpone and go 100% blue cheese.
Because blue cheese can vary widely in salinity I’ve left out a salt measure from the dressing, but as with anything you cook, taste things every step of the way. This includes checking to see how salty the blue cheese is before you start the dressing, tasting as you make the dressing, adjusting the taste and texture to your liking, and then giving it a final taste before pouring it on the salad.
Ingredients
-
1
head
Iceberg lettuce
-
90
grams
slab bacon (cut into 1/4-inch batons)
-
50
grams
Maytag blue cheese
-
50
grams
Mascarpone cheese
-
1/4
cup
plain yogurt
-
1
tablespoon
mayonnaise
-
1
tablespoon
milk
-
1/2
cup
blueberries
-
salt (to taste)
-
ground black pepper (to taste)
Steps
-
Wash the lettuce, then cut it in half through the middle of the stem. Cut the halves in half again through the stem, then put the quartered lettuce in a large bowl of ice water. This not only chills the lettuce, it will make the lettuce extra crisp.
-
Fry the bacon until crisp and drain on a paper towel.
-
To make the dressing, crumble the blue cheese into a small bowl, then add the Marscarpone, yogurt, mayonnaise, and milk. Stir together until combined, leaving a few chunks of blue cheese. If you want your dressing to be more pungent, you can leave out the marscapone and just use 100 grams of blue cheese. Taste the dressing and add salt as needed.
-
To assemble the salad, drain the wedges of lettuce well, shaking out any excess water. Drizzle some dressing on top, then sprinkle the bacon, and blueberries on top. Finish with some fresh ground black pepper. You can also crumble on more blue cheese.
cjbollinger says
Wow, I would have never thought of blueberries-perfect foil. I don’t think any other fruit would really work here. Nice! I will definitely give it a try on my next wedge salad -thanks Marc!
Brian @ A Thought For Food says
I recently saw the Wedge Caesar and that may be more of my scene, though this looks pretty fantastic.
Brian @ A Thought For Food says
I recently saw the Wedge Caesar and that may be more of my scene, though this looks pretty fantastic.
fox.in.an.apron says
The photos are gorgeous! I have always wanted to try blue cheese on something…I will give this a try next time with my salad. Thanks Marc!
Jeff @ Cheeseburger says
I’m a big fan of wedge salads as well. The blueberries touch is great!
CJ at Food Stories says
I love a good wedge salad and this one looks so special … got to pin it for later 🙂
Jeff @ Cheeseburger says
I’m a big fan of wedge salads as well. The blueberries touch is great!
Lorraine @ Not Quite Nigella says
I was just talking about wedge salad to a friend the other day! They practically devoted a whole episode to it on Modern Family. It made me want to try one. Yours looks delicious Marc!
Marc Matsumoto says
I forget sometimes that the concept is foreign to many outside the US:-)