Roomansalaatti - Romaine lettuce

Roo­man­sa­laat­ti – Ro­mai­ne let­tu­ce
Lac­tu­ca sa­ti­va var. lon­gi­fo­lia

as­te­ra­ce­ae -hei­mo As­te­ri­kas­vit

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Roo­man­sa­laat­ti on kor­ke­a­ke­räi­nen side­sa­laat­ti, joka muis­tut­taa kii­nan­kaa­lia. Roo­man­sa­laa­tin leh­det ovat mel­ko suu­ria, pit­kiä sekä kar­kei­ta. Vä­ril­tään se on ty­ves­tä vaa­le­am­man ja leh­tien päis­tä tum­mem­man vih­reä. Tai­met is­tu­te­taan noin kol­men­kym­me­nen sent­ti­met­rin vä­lein. Sen kas­vu­aika on kak­si kuu­kaut­ta.

Roo­man­sa­laat­tia on kau­an tun­net­tu sa­laat­ti ja sitä vil­jel­tiin jo mui­nai­ses­sa Egyp­tis­sä. Nimi juon­taa luul­ta­vas­ti juu­ren­sa Roo­maan, jon­ka kaut­ta se kul­keu­tui Län­ti­seen Eu­roop­paan. Eri­tyi­ses­ti roo­man­sa­laat­ti si­säl­tää A-vi­ta­mii­nia sekä fo­laat­tia, joka on tär­keä vesi­liu­koi­nen vi­ta­mii­ni.

Roo­man­sa­laa­tin maku on ta­val­lis­ta kerä­sa­laat­tia voi­mak­kaam­pi. Eri­tyi­ses­ti se tun­ne­taan Ca­e­sar-sa­laa­tin raa­ka-ai­nee­na. Se tuo myös pe­rin­tei­siin tuo­re­sa­laat­tei­hin ma­kua ja vä­riä. Roo­man­sa­laa­tin leh­det so­pi­vat erin­o­mai­ses­ti esi­mer­kik­si läm­pi­miin ruo­kiin, ku­ten wok­kei­hin. Ma­koi­sa idea on myös käyt­tää leh­tiä pie­ni­nä lau­ta­si­na tai ve­nei­nä ja aset­taa leh­dil­le pie­niä suu­pa­lo­ja.

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Ro­mai­ne let­tu­ce
Lac­tu­ca sa­ti­va var. lon­gi­fo­lia

Ro­mai­ne sa­lads are up­right gro­wing and have elon­ga­ted slen­der le­a­ves with strong do­mi­nant mid ribs. The ou­ter le­a­ves are dar­ker green, and all le­a­ves have an ex­cel­lent firm tex­tu­re and sweet fla­vour. The tal­lest ty­pes re­ac­hing up to 35cm are ge­ne­ral­ly known as cos let­tu­ce, the me­dium more open ty­pes re­ac­hing around 20-25cm known as ro­mai­nes, and the most com­pact and smal­lest re­ac­hing about 12cm known as litt­le gem ty­pes. The litt­le gem has also been known as the su­gar cos, being as sweet as the best but­ter­he­ad sa­lads.

Ro­mai­ne sa­lads are re­a­dy to use 50-80 days from plan­ting, be­co­ming prog­res­si­ve­ly fir­mer at their cen­ters as the long le­a­ves wrap around them­sel­ves for­ming a ´he­art`. When ful­ly re­a­dy they will have pro­du­ced lar­ge num­bers of usab­le le­a­ves va­rying in co­lour from a dark green of the ou­ter le­a­ves to pale green at the cen­ter of the he­art. Ro­mi­a­nes are best when grown out­doors whe­re they be­ne­fit from the sun to give that full fla­vour and ro­bust tex­tu­re. The sa­lads grown in green­hou­ses and po­ly­tun­nels are flim­sy and tas­te­less by com­pa­ri­son.

All sa­lads are best har­ves­ted ear­ly in the mor­ning up un­til the af­ter­noons be­gin to be cool around the be­gin­ning of Sep­tem­ber. Sa­lads har­ves­ted in warm dry con­di­ti­ons must be rin­sed di­rect­ly with cold wa­ter (even af­ter this will not be as good as tho­se har­ves­ted ear­ly) and used as soon as pos­sib­le. Qu­a­li­ty prob­lems are usu­al­ly as­so­ci­a­ted to fresh­ness. When cut from its lar­ge tap root the trans­pi­ra­ti­on that con­ti­nu­es from a sa­lads lar­ge leaf sur­fa­ce area, very quick­ly le­ads to de­te­ri­o­ra­ti­on and loss of qu­a­li­ty.

Sa­lads must be har­ves­ted when they are in good con­di­ti­on, rin­sed di­rect­ly when pos­sib­le in cold wa­ter and kept un­der 5c at high re­la­ti­ve hu­mi­di­ty. This way they may keep well for se­ve­ral days.