bleu is blue

"This isn't blue cheese dressing!" I complained. 

A wedge of iceberg lettuce was bathed in vinaigrette and topped with crumbled bleu cheese.  I was disgusted.  I wanted sour cream!  I wanted buttermilk!  I wanted creamy calories I could afford back then, back in the seventies. 

Fast forward three decades; I wanted this salad for dinner tonight!

*** 

"Your tastes change every seven years, you know," I preached to Elizabeth, sitting together at Zanata's bar, sharing the Sampler.  There was brie and cherry marmalade to spread on crusty bread bread.  There were olives and warm pecans.  Beth was gaga over the small peppers filled with goat cheese until I stated the obvious. 

"Oh, but I don't eat goat cheese," she said, putting the half eaten pepper down on her plate.  "Uh, yes you do," I replied, stifling a Cheshire cat grin. 

"That can't be goat cheese.  I don't like goat cheese." 

"You might not like tangy, goat cheese but you obviously like lusciously mild, goat cheese, and this one is excellent," I explained. 

***

As I crumbled the cheese for tonight's dinner salad, I thought about the truth in that old wife's tale my mother passed on to me from her mother.  I grabbed a fork and vigorously beat the dressing, wondering if Elizabeth might like to try this salad. 

I laughed out loud; silly to even ask... 

She doesn't like blue cheese.

Salad with Blue Cheese

Two chilled wedges of iceberg lettuce

Three tablespoons olive oil

One tablespoon champagne or white wine vinegar

Salt and black pepper

One ounce blue cheese, cut into pieces
One ripe tomato, quartered and salted

Whisk together the olive oil and the vinegar until emulsified. 

Stir in the salt and pepper. 

Drizzle the dressing between the layers
and over the tops of the lettuce wedges.  

Arrange the bites of blue cheese across each wedge.
Serve with tomato and freshly ground pepper.


Serves two as a side salad, one a full dinner salad.
For a little seventies flavor, add handfuls of
French's, crispy Fried Onions.

 

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