should be added only at the last minute,
because oil readily wets the waxy leaf
cuticle, percolates through the empty
spaces within, and soon makes the leaf
dark and sodden. Water-based cream
dressings are better for greens that need to
be dressed well in advance of eating.Lettuces: Nonbitter Greens Today’s mild,
widely popular lettuces, varieties of the
species Lactuca sativa, derive from an
inedibly bitter weedy ancestor, L. serriola,
that grew in Asia and the Mediterranean and
has been under cultivation and improvement
for 5,000 years. Lettuce seems to be
represented in some ancient Egyptian art, and
was certainly enjoyed by the Greeks and by
the Romans, who had several varieties and ate
them cooked as well as raw in salads at the
beginning or end of the meal. The first
syllable of its Latin name, lac, means “milk,”
and refers to the defensive white latex that