Lettuce!
At the height of summer, it's the perfect time to explore the season's heavenly varieties
of Lettuce! Greens are so vibrant and sweet right now that dressings are practically unnecessary. Green salads are a main staple in my diet and something I encourage
my friends and clients to embrace. Admittedly, I have cultivated a bit of a following for
my salads and if I had to pick one thing that I make the best - well, that would be it. To
me, a truly great salad involves a green at its base and evolves from there.
For some, salads evoke the image of a meager meal starter or perhaps the memory of
a wedge of iceberg lettuce with a scoop Hellmann's mayo (which happened to be my grandfather's favorite). Don't get me wrong, I'm a Midwestern girl at heart and adore
a good hunk of iceberg from time to time, but that wedge has so much potential.
Organic Iceberg with a few shaved red onions, chopped celery and topped with a
sweet Cashewed-Tomato Dressing... I promise your view on iceberg will change!
It wasn't until I began spending time in Europe that I started to deeply explore various families of lettuce. In NY I took for granted the gorgeous Romaine I could get from the farmstand. Romaine is my favorite lettuce for its crunch, and its dipping and wrapping potential. But there are 5 families of lettuce, and in those families at least 4 or 5 brothers and sisters. So Butter Lettuce is not Boston Lettuce and each sibling will vary in sweetness, texture, shape and leaf quality.
The Five Families of Lettuce
Butterhead - My runner-up for favorite Lettuce has an astounding ability to take a simple salad to new, elegant heights. It also is a perfect wrapper for sautéed veggies or even sliced avocado. Butterhead's characteristics are loose, sort of flat leaves and its shape is like a flower. The leaves are delicate, so be careful when you wash them and please, never put a knife to them. Tear gently.
The family members are Boston, Bibb, Limestone and sometimes Batavia - a cross between Crisphead and Butterhead.
Crisphead - There is a time and place for a good Crisphead lettuce, better known as Iceberg. Its main characteristics are tightly packed leaves and high crunch factor. It is very watery and neutral in taste, and even can stand up to a knife.
Family members include Great Lakes, the standard Iceberg, Ithaca, a bit greener, and Imperial, a superior Crisphead with the darkest leaves.
Batavia is France's version of Crisphead, but it is sweeter than the American version.
Looseleaf - Sweet, buttery at times and always unusually shaped, this lettuce doesn't form a compact head like the others. Colors vary and the names are really dependent on what the shape of the leaf is. Red and Green Leaf Lettuce are the most common and have many siblings - little families within families.
Romaine - Sometimes known as Cos lettuce, the king of Lettuce in my opinion! The crunch factor is key in a good salad, and this head can stand up to juicing and even the grill! Its tight, thin, football-like shape is easily recognizable. Again, keep the knife away - only tear these gentle, scrumptious leaves.
Celtuce - Also known as Stem Lettuce, this is not so popular in the US or in Europe but very popular in China and around Asia. Its outer leaves must be peeled before eating and it stands up to cooking very well.
