One Great . . . gorgonzola salad

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Once upon a time, when I was a very young lass in West Palm Beach, Fla., there was a steak restaurant called Manero's. Fancy place, expensive steaks. And, most of the time, completely out of my financial league.

But in those long-ago days, there were things called "dates," when a young girl might be taken out for a nice meal. And so, very occasionally, I got to go to Manero's.

I don't recall a thing about the steaks. I can't remember all that much about most of those dates. None made an impression until I met the one I married in another town, many miles and a few years away.

But Manero's Gorgonzola salad? Now, that made an impression. It was really the reason people went to the restaurant: The cheesiest, most garlicky salad, tossed tableside in wooden bowls. A few years ago, paddling around on food web sites, I found a recipe that the Miami Herald apparently had begged from the original owners. The trick turned out to be garlic oil, rubbed into the wooden bowl before mixing the salad.

Garlic and Gorgonzola Salad
If you can't find gorgonzola, you could use blue cheese. The original directions call for freezing the cheese for 24 hours, so it's very firm and shreds well.

1 clove garlic, peeled
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil, divided
1 head of iceberg lettuce (although romaine or something better would do)
1 green pepper, cored and diced
2 stalks celery, diced
2 ripe tomatoes, cored and diced
Salt and pepper
4 ounces Gorgonzola or blue cheese
1/4 cup cider vinegar

Combine the garlic clove and 1/2 cup oil in a blender and puree. Rub a wooden salad bowl well with the garlic oil. Refrigerate any leftover oil.

Break lettuce into bite-size pieces and place in the treated salad bowl. Add the green peper, celery and tomato. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Grate cheese over the top of the salad. Whisk together the vinegarand remaining cup of oil. Pour over the salad and toss well.
Serve immediately.

Yield: 4 servings.