Do You Love Iceberg Lettuce?

some fancy-pants chefs love iceberg lettuce, too. I'm not ashamed to admit that I love iceberg lettuce. It's cool, it's crisp, and it's a perfect foil for blue cheese dressing.

Don't get me wrong. I love a fresh, peppery arugula salad picked that morning from somebody's garden. But I don't much care for wilted organic arugula grown 3,000 miles from my house and picked two weeks before it finds its way into my hands. I also hate iceberg lettuce that is more brown than light green with tons of droopy outer leaves. C'mon, admit it. You like iceberg lettuce, too.

Here's a great blue cheese dressing recipe from the late Jamie Shannon (and Ti Adelaide Martin) of Commander's Palace (Are there others out there? Hell, I even like Marie's, though the best commercially available blue cheese dressing is from Point Reyes Cheese.

Commander's Palace Blue Cheese Dressing
- makes 2 1/3 cups -

Ingredients
1/2 pound good-quality blue cheese ( like Maytag Blue Cheese-Ed)

1/2 medium onion, coarsely chopped

Kosher salt and plenty of freshly ground pepper to taste

1/4 cup cane, cider or malt vinegar

Juice of 1 small lemon

1/4 teaspoon hot sauce, or to taste

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

1 cup olive oil

Procedure
Place half the cheese, the chopped onion, salt, pepper, vinegar, lemon juice, hot sauce, and Worcestershire in the workbowl of a food processor. Purée until well blended and liquified. Slowly drizzle the olive oil into the mixture, then turn off the machine. Crumble the remaining cheese, and pulse until well blended. There should be lots of small cheese chunks remaining in the dressing. Adjust seasoning. Refrigerate for up to two weeks.

Jamie Shannon's Tips: Use a high-quality, aged blue cheese, but remember that the cheese may be salty, so be careful with added salt. But pepper's another story. Add lots of freshly ground pepper.

From Commander's Kitchen by Jamie Shannon and Ti Adelaide Martin, Broadway Books

Photograph from iStockPhoto.com; I can has blu cheez explained