Give Your Sandwich More Texture by Adding Iceberg Lettuce “slats”
I love iceberg lettuce . It might not be very tasty, but the cool, crunchy crunch it gives to meat and cheese salads (like the gorgeous wedge) and savory mayonnaise sandwiches (like the tuna salad situation) is iconic. I know romaine has more “flavor” but that “flavor” is “leaves” and you should still season your sandwich greens.
I usually love sliced lettuce, but Bon Appetit recently made a strong case for thick planks of well-seasoned iceberg they call “lettuce steaks.” These 1 1/2-inch thick lettuce plates shift the ratio in favor of crunchiness, and the “steak” cut prevents the leaves from slipping off. Bon Appetit also recommends seasoning the “steaks” with a mixture of olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper, but I think adding a bit of red wine vinegar to the lemon would be nice, especially if you’re working. with Italian meat.
You should check out BA to read their full sandwich process and recipe , but I plan on including a lot of lettuce boards in my tuna and chicken salad sandwiches. (BLT too, but we’re still too early for that.) BA’s instructions for making these boards are simple:
To cook the steak, place 1 medium head of iceberg lettuce on a work surface at the end of the stalk and cut off one rounded end to make a flat surface; set the rounded end aside (“appetizer salad”). Cut a board of iceberg 1½” thick; if it’s too big to reasonably fit within the perimeters of your sandwich bread, cut the board to size.
Once you have your board, drizzle with the high acid vinaigrette and place seasoned leaves on top of a tuna salad sandwich, BLT, or BA’s own HLT (that’s ham, lettuce, and tomato).