Summer lettuce comes in giant, colorful, healthful heads. Yet how many times have you bought one such beautiful head for salad only to watch the leaves go sad and limp in the fridge before anything resembling a salad gets made? Here’s how to make sure that never happens again.

Washing lettuce may win as my most hated kitchen task. But if I wash the lettuce right when I get home (I use a spinner ^[1], but you can also just spread it out on the counter), place it in one layer on a kitchen towel, and then roll it up into a kitchen towel-lettuce spiral (see above), each leaf stays unimaginably crisp and fresh in the vegetable drawer for up to a week. A whole week!

Though the pre-washed salad-in-a-box stuff is fine in winter, now that I’m addicted to beautiful heads of red, Boston, and Romaine lettuce, this tip means that if we can all just get past the hated lettuce-washing task, beautiful salads are ours for the eating all week.

See tips from previous Make ^[2] It! ^[2] columns, like how to cut fifteen cherry tomatoes at once ^[3], and how to make iced tea without boiling water ^[4].

[layout by Chevrons and Stripes ^[5]]