Best Salad Ever: Bacon, Lettuce, and Cherry Tomato Salad with Aioli Dressing

Everyone knows that bacon makes everything better; I think it's common knowledge by now.  What I think is the epitome of food perfection is making a bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich at the height of tomato season.  Soft sourdough surrounding crisp clean leaves of lettuce, sweet juice tomato, with crunchy and salty bits of bacon, all blanketed with creaming mayonnaise.  I don't know what else is better than that.  Oh wait, I do - this salad I found in last July's Bon Appetit!

You can almost forgive the absence of sourdough bread in this salad, although you can do what we did and toast some yummy ciabatta bread brushed with olive oil and scraped with garlic.  This salad is light and refreshing.  The presence of the crispy bacon standing out prominently from the crisp Romaine lettuce and sweet, juicy cherry tomatoes.  What is great is that the aioli dressing on this salad is not over-powering and it doesn't drench the salad at all.  There is just enough dressing to add enough flavor and creaminess to make you reminisce about the equally delicious sandwich variation. 

While you can certainly make this salad all-year-round, you'll miss out on how sweet and tangy cherry tomatoes can be in their height of their respective season.  Living in California, though, we are spoiled and can find rather tasty cherry tomatoes (and other small tomato varieties) even in the dead of winter.

This is a hefty enough salad to stand as a main dish, although can easily  be a side dish.  However, I wouldn't want this as a side dish as I would find myself eating more of this salad than anything else on my plate!




Bacon, Lettuce, and Cherry Tomato Salad with Aioli Dressing
Serves 4

5 ounces Applewood-Smoked Bacon (about 6 slices)
12  Cups Romaine Lettuce, torn (from 1 large head; about 13 ounces)
8 ounces Cherry, Grape, and/or Pear Tomatoes, halved
1 Clove Garlic, pressed or minced
3 Tablespoons Mayonnaise
1-1/2 Tablespoons White Wine Vinegar

1.  Cook bacon in a large skillet over medium heat until crisp; transfer to paper towels.  Crumble bacon coarsely.  Pour off all but 1 tablespoon of the drippings from the skillet; reserve skillet.
2.  Place lettuce and tomatoes in a large serving bowl.
3.  Heat bacon drippings in skillet over medium heat.  Add garlic, then mayonnaise and vinegar; whisk until blended, 30-40 seconds.  Season dressing to taste with salt and pepper.
4.  Pour dressing over the lettuce and tomatoes and toss to coat.  Sprinkle bacon over.  Serve immediately!
Credit:  Bon Appetit, July 2010, p. 57.