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A Roman Wedge Salad is a classic iceberg wedge salad topped with our homemade blue cheese dressing and crispy pancetta!
Whenever my husband Jack and I line up a babysitter or arrange a sleepover for our daughter, we often go out for dinner and a movie. Our date night dinner typically includes ordering one of our favorite salads: an iceberg lettuce wedge with blue cheese dressing – also known as a Roman Wedge Salad.
We’ve ordered wedge salads at many restaurants over the years, and one particular restaurant on Cape Cod prepares what we think is the absolute best version around! It’s a place called Tomatoes Italian Grille & Bar – a wonderful restaurant in Sandwich, Massachusetts. In addition to their huge food portions, reasonable prices, great service, fun atmosphere, and the convenience of a movie theater right next door (a perfect date night!) – their Roman Wedge Salad is expertly prepared and the inspiration behind today’s recipe.
What makes this salad so good is just simple, quality ingredients: A chilled wedge of crisp, fresh iceberg lettuce, a generous amount of rich and creamy blue cheese dressing, juicy, ripe tomato slices, plus a sprinkle of crispy pancetta. Nothing overly fancy – just the perfect combination of flavors and textures!
I think the best way to tackle eating this hearty salad is to chop up and toss everything together on your serving plate. This way the layers of iceberg lettuce and the tomatoes get coated with that luscious creamy blue cheese dressing, and you’ll also get bites of that crispy salty pancetta throughout.
By the way, when we make this Roman Wedge Salad at home, we also make this incredible homemade Blue Cheese Dressing. It’s easy to make and so much better than the bottled dressing from the supermarket! Enjoy!
You may also like:
- Blue Cheese Dressing
- Grilled Romaine Hearts and Pears with Bleu Cheese
- Bacon-Wrapped Gulf Shrimp with Blue Cheese Butter and Port Reduction
- Chicken Cordon Bleu
- Chicken Cordon Bleu Sliders
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Roman Wedge Salad
Crispy bacon also works in this salad in place of the pancetta, but we prefer using pancetta. Bacon has a sweeter, smokier flavor that we feel competes with the blue cheese dressing.
Ingredients
1/4 pound pancetta
2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
1/2 large head of iceberg lettuce
2 tomatoes sliced
2 cups blue cheese dressing
1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese
Instructions
- Unroll the piece of pancetta and chop into small pieces.
- Heat olive oil in a medium sauté pan until hot. Add pancetta and cook over medium heat until crispy. Drain on paper towels and discard the fat.
- Cut the iceberg half into three or four wedges (depending on the size of your head of lettuce) and arrange on salad plates. Arrange tomatoes slices around each wedge.
- Pour blue cheese dressing over wedges and sprinkle the crispy pancetta over the top along with crumbled blue cheese. Serve immediately.
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I think wedge salads are so neat, but how do you wash it and keep it all in one piece before serving?
Great question Irene! Our method is to remove the core first – an easy trick is to take the head of ice burg lettuce and bang it on the counter with the core-side down – the will loosen the core and you can just pull it from the head. Then run the head under water into the opening left behind by the core, moving the layers with your fingers to get the water between them. You’ll need to shake the water out, and you can even leave it to drain for a bit, opening side down, on a paper towel until ready to cut into wedges. This should ideally be done right before you plan to make the wedges. You can also remove any outer leaves that are dirty or bruised. Hope that helps!
Hi Martha,
We are a Blue Cheese loving family, even the little ones. I have a recipe for Blue Cheese dressing that I got from a steak house years ago. Yours is so different and I can’t wait to try it. Such a simple salad has to has a great dressing.
Linda
You’re family has great taste Linda! 😉 We hope our recipe is just as good as your steak house version! Have a great weekend – Martha