I know.

Before you say "eww" at the thought of hot lettuce (an inclination which many of us, myself included, have), give these quick bites a whirl. The grilling of the romaine makes it a touch crunchy and provides some great flavor, and gives you an opportunity to melt some parmesan on there. Come on. Try something new. I promise the rest of this post will be void of other gag inducing concepts (such as the word "moist"), just for good form.

I made these in under ten minutes while a bunch of us were hanging out in the backyard, and then passed them out to people accordingly. It's the ultimate hands-off (then hands-on) grill snack.






What They're Made of:

• 1/2 a cup diced slab bacon (or pancetta)
• Head of romaine lettuce, rinsed and dried, leaves separated
• Olive Oil
• Grated parmesan cheese
• Cherry tomatoes (2 or so per lettuce leaf)
• 1/2 medium-sized red onion, sliced thin
• Good quality ranch or blue cheese dressing, should you desire

How They're Made:

• Heat a skillet over medium high heat. Add bacon and cook until firm and a bit crunchy, ~5 or so minutes.
• Drain bacon on paper towels and set aside
• Pre-heat grill
• Drizzle romaine with olive oil and sprinkle generously with parmesan
• Skewer tomatoes to grill
• Place tomatoes on the top rack of the grill and cook for 2-3 minutes
• Add romaine to grill, over direct heat
• Grill romaine for about 5 minutes, flipping occasionally, so it does not burn. You want it to get slightly brown at the edges but not everywhere
• When tomatoes are blistered and romaine is browned, remove from grill
• Assemble accordingly: Place a few tomatoes, a sprinkle of sliced onion, a palmful of bacon and a drizzle of dressing in each leaf
• Roll up like a burrito (apparently this is an acquired skill, as I had to roll everyone's burritos for them during our last vacation) and chomp it down. 

Go back for seconds. And thirds. It's lettuce (Okay and bacon. And cheese. And salad dressing)...how bad can it be?