Day 59: roasting a lettuce
I am quite excited about today’s pick; it first came on my radar back in 2015, when it made the “headlines”. I recall the faux outrage surrounding it to be rather amusing, too: the nation seemed totally stunned that someone would put a lettuce in the oven, or so the tabloids liked to make you think. To me, the idea sounded fabulous, but, unfortunately, it didn’t stay on my radar for long; the recipe called for anchovies, you see, and as you well know – before this cookalong - that was a realm I wasn’t yet ready to explore.
Gratefully, I have now well-explored that realm and feel that it is time to step outside of my comfort zone (enjoying anchovies in pasta and stews) and start trialling them in dishes where they remain closer to their original form (by original form I mean not hidden, or guised, in a sauce). So, with great pleasure and much anticipation, I roasted a lettuce in the oven today for Nigella’s Riff on a Caesar Salad.
Nigella’s Riff on a Caesar Salad
Okay, yes, it’s an odd concept to roast a lettuce. Well, it is to me anyway. But, I’ve had lettuce in soups and on Nigella’s Spring Chicken, so the notion of warm lettuce doesn’t necessarily shock me and I am certainly not averse to it. For me, lunch usually consists of popping into the kitchen, grabbing something quick to eat and then returning to my desk. Not every day, but some days, I like to take a little longer for my lunch break and even cook something from scratch. It doesn’t need to be complex or long-winded, and today’s pick was ideal: slice a lettuce in half, smother with anchovified, garlicky oil and blast in a hot oven for 10 minutes before anointing with lemon zest and juice and giving a final heat-blast in the oven for 5 minutes.
In hindsight, I think the romaine lettuce hearts I used were miniature, meaning that I probably should have shaved off 5 minutes from their initial blast in the oven; because I did not, though, mine does look a little shrivelled but were still very much enjoyed and the core maintained its wilted crunch.
Flavour musings
Firstly: the smells emanating from the oven were divine. I don’t just mean the anchovies and the garlic, the lettuce even had a unique smell to it (one I am not experienced enough to describe). Secondly: what a revelation; heat-blasting a lettuce is indeed a very nice twist to a caesar salad. And, as I’m still not quite sure that I’m ready to find whole anchovy fillets nestled away in my salad, this is a fabulous way for me to enjoy them in all their saltiness.
This recipe is taken from Simply Nigella. This book holds a special place in my heart, but I don’t know why. Each time I look through it I feel very nostalgic. I think it takes me back to the first house I lived in with my husband when life was a little less complicated, more fun was had and - in general - we had more time to do the things that we loved: lots of little parties with friends, weekends dedicated to cooking, mini holidays and visiting friends for short (all whilst still working very hard and commuting for 2 hours every day to work). It seemed a time when my anxieties - although still very much in existence - played a much smaller role in ruling my every-day moods and self-confidence. On a culinary note, it is also the book that brought us roast radishes; another salad-item-to-roast-in-the-oven proposition, and one deserving of equal merit as roasting a lettuce.
