Salata z Boczkiem (Polish Wilted Lettuce Salad with Bacon Vinaigrette)

The combination between the freshness of lettuce and the crispy smokiness of a bacon vinegraitte (with red wine vinegar and roasted onion and sugar) is so beautiful and seems so natural to Western tastes I'm surprised that only the Polish and Hungarian (they have a version of it) thought of it. 

This isn't one of those complete-meal salads, but a salad to keep company to a main course. We had it with a dish of vegetarian wild rice. It was yummy and not hard to make. If you're a fan of the bacon yourself you should try it, we loved it.

Barely adapted from here. 

Ingredients (serves 2-4):

• 1 lettuce salad head
• 200 g bacon
• 1 medium white onion
• 2 tablespoon red wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon white sugar

Wash the salad:

Heat a frying pan and tear the bacon slices into it:

Continue until you've finished the bacon.

Let it fry on low heat, stirring once in a while. In the meantime, tear the salad leaves with your fingers into a large salad bowl, discarding the stalks (it's healthier to not cut leaves using metal tools):

Also peel and finely cut the onion into pieces. When the bacon is pretty much fried, put it on a separate plate and put the minced onion in the pan instead:

Gently fry it until lightly browned. Put the red vinegar, the sugar and 2 tablespoons of water into a glass and mix:

Put the bacon back in the frying pan on top of the onion and pour the vinegar mixture on top of it:

Bring the whole thing to a boil and let it cook for 2 minutes, then pout it over the iceberg leaves:

Stir well and serve right away before the salad leaves wilt too much. Dig in! :)