The funny thing about lettuce is that we never cook with it. Using it in hot dishes is, for us, the culinary equivalent of the dark side of the moon .
Of course, as we have become more adventurous over the last decade, the variety and accessibility of the leaves we eat has improved enormously. Yet we reserve all these delicious things for the salad bowl, and never explore how they might work in savoury cooking.
This is curious, simply because great recipes which cook the salad leaves have been around for so long. The classic Petits Pois a la Francaise (of which we give a version below) is very old. One of my favourite soups is the Italian masterpiece, Zuppa dei Povere (poor man's soup), a gentle mix of water, potatoes and stale bread. The main flavour is given by handfuls of rocket leaves, stirred in when the potatoes are half cooked, their jade brilliance illuminating the starchy soup with shocks of colour, and their peppery attack vigorously kick-starting the flavour.
Soups seem to like salad leaves stirred into them. When I came across the first recipe below, for chick pea soup with romaine lettuce, my initial reaction was that it would be a disaster. Didn't it need slow cooked onions and a rich stock to make the chick peas interesting?
The answer was an emphatic no: this terrific soup stands on its own, largely because of the strong flavour imparted by the romaine or cos leaves. My scepticism was overcome by a simple, delicious idea. This is fabulous fast food.
Risottos also take well to having salad greens stirred into them while they slowly cook to elegant creaminess, and if you like to cut the standard cheesy-butteryness of risotto, then salad leaves add a slightly bitter, clean flavour to the dish. So take the plunge, and the next time you're shaking the leaves dry in the salad spinner, set some aside for a fast soup, or to stir into a risotto or a vegetable dish. There is more to salad leaves than salad.
Romaine Lettuce and Chick Pea Soup
This comes from John Thorne's book, Simple Cooking, and he, in turn, borrowed it from Ed Giobbi's Italian Family Cooking.
1 bunch romaine
1 clove garlic
1 20-ounce can chick peas (preferably organic: you will find them in wholefood shops)
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons olive oil
salt and freshly ground pepper
Prepare the romaine (or cos) by washing it carefully, then pull the leaves into bite-size bits, discarding any that are white or brown. Chop up the stems.
Put the garlic, the chopped stems, the chick peas and the liquid from their can into a heavy pot along with half a cup of water. Simmer gently for 20 minutes. Add the torn romaine leaves and simmer an additional 10 minutes.
Now remove from the heat and stir in the lemon juice and olive oil, seasoning with salt and pepper to taste. Let rest for 5 minutes off the heat and serve. This serves 4.
Risotto with Lettuce and Fennel
The inspiration for this risotto comes from a recipe in Viana La Place's book, Verdura. I have adapted her technique, cooking the fennel and lettuce rather less than she does, as I find this allows them to retain more freshness.
Volumes of ingredients for risotto are always variable, depending on the rice and whether you want to serve the risotto as a starter or a main course. If the risotto is a main course, it's a good rule of thumb to allow 75 grams of rice (this is about a handful) and a half pint of stock for each person. But always have plenty of stock on hand.
1.5 litres (two and a half pints) chicken stock
300g arborio rice
1 tablespoon olive oil
25g/1 oz butter
1 bulb fennel
1 head lettuce (iceberg, butterhead, cos or romaine)
half an onion, finely chopped
50g/2 oz parmesan
handful finely chopped parsley
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Bring the stock to the boil, then turn down the heat so it is kept at a steady simmer. Chop the fennel into a fine dice, and shred the lettuce leaves. Put the oil, half the butter and the sliced onion and chopped fennel into a heavy pot, and cook the onion and fennel until the onion is translucent.
Add the shredded lettuce and cook for about 5 minutes, then add the rice and coat the grains well with the butter and oil. Begin to add the simmering stock, ladleful by ladleful, stirring all the time, adding more stock as the previous liquid is absorbed. Continue the process until the rice is glossy and cooked, just slightly al dente - this takes about 20 minutes.
When the rice is ready, (it should have a runny consistency) take it off the heat and stir in the grated parmesan, the chopped parsley and the remaining butter. Cover, and allow to rest for 5 minutes for the flavours to come together. Serve in warmed, deep bowls with extra Parmesan to hand, and maybe a splash of olive oil.
Petits Pois a la Francaise
This classic dish can be extremely simple - lettuce, peas, butter and a pinch of sugar cooked quickly together for a couple of minutes. Or you can make it more complex, adding sliced leeks, sliced spring onions, sliced shallots, perhaps a little shredded bacon, and some white wine as the braising liquid. The whole lot should then be cooked together for half an hour.
Some like to make it with tinned peas, but in the absence of the fresh peas which we can get our hands on now, I prefer to use frozen peas. The traditional lettuce to make the dish with is Little Gem, which keeps its shape very well, but any tight butterhead variety will work fine.
I cook the dish in two stages: first, the lettuce is braised over a low heat, and while it is cooking the peas are prepared separately. The two are then combined and the flavours allowed to mingle.
2 heads lettuce
200 grammes frozen peas
2 shallots, finely chopped
sea salt
sugar
olive oil
25g/1 oz butter
Cut the heads of lettuce into quarters and wash them, but don't separate the leaves. Melt half an ounce of butter in a pan, add in the quartered lettuce and turn them over in the butter. Add 2 tablespoons of cold water, cover, and cook over a very low heat for about 15 minutes.
In another pan, melt the remaining butter with half a tablespoon of olive oil. Add the chopped shallot and cook until the shallot is translucent. Add in the fresh or frozen peas, 2 tablespoons of cold water, and a good pinch of sugar. Cook the water off the peas at quite a high heat until it is evaporated (if using fresh peas, do this more slowly, as they will require much more cooking than frozen peas).
When the water is evaporated, stir the peas into the lettuce, scatter over a handful of chopped parsley, and season to taste with salt and freshly ground pepper. Hold over a low heat for a couple of minutes to bring the flavours together. This is delicious with roast chicken.