I absolutely LOVE Caesar salad!  There’s a restaurant in town that makes the best.  One day, I asked the waitress how the dressing was made and she told me they used 100 cloves of garlic!  No wonder I love it!  For a while now, I’ve been on the prowl for a great Caesar salad dressing recipe.  And, none of the bottled versions are up to snuff for me.  I was flipping through a cookbook that my mother picked up for me when they went on their cruise last year.  Lo an behold, there was a recipe for Caesar dressing.  So, I fired up my food processor and gave it a whirl (pun intended!). 

Perfect Caesar Salad
Compliments of It’s a Keeper
www.everydaytastes.com

Dressing
5 cloves garlic
3 Tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
5 anchovy fillets, drained or 2 tsp anchovy paste
2 tsp Dijon mustard
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
2 egg yolks
1 cup Extra virgin olive oil
Salt

Croutons
4 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 cup sourdough bread (or other dense bread), cubed
Salt and pepper

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Salad
3 heads romaine lettuce
1/4 cup shaved parmesan cheese

To prepare croutons: Combine bread, olive oil, salt and pepper and spread on a rimmed baking sheet.  Bake at 375 degrees for 10 minutes or until crisp and gold brown.

To prepare dressing: In a food processor or blender, combine all ingredients except olive oil.  Blend until smooth.  While processing, slowly add oil.  Adjust seasoning if necessary.  Cover and refrigerate.

To prepare salad:  Place lettuce on chilled plates.  Drizzle with dressing and top with parmesan shavings and croutons.  Serve immediately. 

Is It a Keeper?

Well, it doesn’t have 100 cloves of garlic, but this dressing is absolutely perfect!  It is perfectly creamy, perfectly tangy and perfectly balanced.  Now, you may think you can leave out the anchovies.  But don’t.  Trust me.  They add so much flavor to the dressing.  And, you don’t even taste them.  They just blend right in — especially if you use the paste (like I did).

I did make one little change.  I have this thing about raw eggs.  I don’t like it.  So, I swapped the egg yolks for 2 Tbsp of mayo.  It was, well, perfect.

I will caution you to go easy on the salt.  Between the anchovies, the parmesan cheese and the Worcestshire sauce, there is enough salty flavor.

Seriously, I could eat this salad every day!  I usually make a big batch of the dressing so that I always have some on hand.  The dressing keeps for quite a while in the fridge.   Guess what I’m having for lunch tomorrow?

Christina

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