The Wedge Salad with Blue Cheese Dressing

This wedge salad recipe, with one of the most amazing Danish blue cheese dressings, will take you back to the 1950s and 1960s. It begins with a wedge of iceberg lettuce, which is surrounded by bacon and tomatoes, and drizzled with an amazing blue cheese dressing. 

 

Iceberg wedges with blue cheese and bacon were common on restaurant menus in the 1950s and 1960s, but kind of fell out of favor in the 1970s, when darker, more delicate leafy greens were recognized as more nutritious. 

Fortunately for us, the wedge salad is enjoying a resurgence, especially in a la carte steak houses. The contrast of the crunchy iceberg lettuce and the tangy blue cheese dressing is crazy good. 

 

Iceberg lettuce, originally known as crisphead lettuce, got its name because it was easily transportable and would survive a long shipping time when packed in ice. What it does have going for it is that it's crunchy, juicy, and refreshing, and it's the perfect vehicle for a creamy and flavorful blue cheese dressing. 

The blue cheese (with a little bit of help from the bacon), is the source of 95 percent of the flavor in this salad. The dressing is so much tastier than bottled blue cheese dressing. Be sure to use the best blue cheese you can find, such as a Danish or French blue cheese. I used a Danish blue cheese, but roquefort is also one of my favorites.

Ingredients in this wedge salad:

Hearts of iceberg lettuce - be sure to look for heads of lettuce that are heavy for their size. This means that the head is "tight" and won't fall apart when you cut it into wedges. 

Tomatoes - it's difficult to find good ripe tomatoes in the grocery store. I recommend Campari tomatoes, which are kind of like a large cherry tomato. They are juicy, fresh, and everything you want from a tomato. If I can't find them, then I prefer to use cherry tomatoes. 

Crumbled cooked bacon. 

Blue cheese dressing - this dressing calls for 4 ounces of blue cheese, olive oil, mayonnaise, and red wine or sherry vinegar. It's amazing. 

In fact, we splurged and had these salads with steaks, and I pretty much wanted to smother my steak in this dressing. 

This salad is super easy to make. The hardest part is making it pretty. Do you arrange the tomatoes around the bottom? Do you drizzle the dressing over the wedges or serve it on the side (or both)? 

Another option is to slice the iceberg into wide rounds so you don't have to deal with the restaurant presentation. 

You could also just chop it all up and present it as a chopped wedge salad. 

If you want that a la carte steak house feel to your dinner, you've got to serve it in wedges. You can serve it in one big wedge two smaller wedges. I like the idea of drizzling a little of the dressing over the wedges and then serving additional blue cheese dressing on the side in individual serving sizes. 

Follow the salad course with juicy steaks topped with garlic butter, spinach gratin, and scalloped potatoes for an amazing dinner. 

This week the From Our Dinner Table Group is making vintage recipes! Check them all out. 

Vintage Recipes

• Baked Alaska for Two by Making Miracles
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• The Relish Tray by Our Good Life

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This recipe was originally published in June, 2013. I've updated the photos and the recipe. The recipe was adapted from The Unofficial Mad Men Cookbook: Inside the Kitchens, Bars, and Restaurants of Mad Men. I recieved a complimentary copy of the book. All opinions are my own. 

The authors adapted it from The Palm Restaurant Cookbook. Definitely a cookbook I'd like to get my hands on. I have many memories of The Palm in Beverly Hills from back when I was in sales. 

The Wedge Salad with Bacon, Tomatoes, and Blue Cheese Dressing

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Yield: 4 servings

Author: Karen Kerr

This wedge salad recipe, with one of the most amazing Danish blue cheese dressings, will take you back to the 1950s and 1960s. It begins with a wedge of iceberg lettuce, which is surrounded by bacon and tomatoes, and drizzled with an amazing blue cheese dressing.

Ingredients

For the Salad

• 2 iceberg lettuce heads, cored, outer leaves removed, cut into quarters
• 4 Campari tomatoes, sliced
• Crumbled cooked bacon, to taste

For the Dressing

• 4 ounces room temperature Danish or French blue cheese 
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 1 1/2 tablespoons red wine or sherry vinegar

Instructions

1. Crumble the blue cheese into a bowl. Whisk in the olive oil with a fork and let stand for about 40 minutes. 
2. Whisk in the mayonnaise and vinegar. 
3. Place iceberg wedges on chilled salad plates. 
4. Top with the bacon and place the tomatoes alongside the wedges. 
5. Drizzle with the dressing and serve with more dressing on the side. 

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