Before I met him, I’d tried caesar salad and decided I hated it. And then I had his; when we first started seeing each other, one of the first meals he made me included a caesar salad with his (of course) homemade dressing. I’ve been thoroughly spoiled ever since. Now and then I’ll go ahead and order a Greek salad at a restaurant, even though I’m always disappointed by comparison to his, but I just don’t waste my time with Caesar salad, even in very good restaurants where they make their own dressing. His caesar salad beats any other, hands down.
the dressing, being made in his giant mortar and pestle
You don’t have to have a mortar and pestle, of course (but if you’re in the market for one, this is the one we have), but he always makes this dressing in his. He hand grinds the garlic and anchovies, then pours everything else in and mixes it with a fork (recipe after the photos). That’s fresh ground Parmesan cheese ready to be mixed in.
it just doesn't get better than this. unless you have homemade croutons.
He usually puts croutons on the salad – traditional – but of course he has his own way of doing them. You know how you stab a crouton and it shatters, or you try to scoop it up with your fork and it falls off on the way to your mouth? Well. He rough crushes the croutons and pours olive oil that has been infused with pressed garlic over them, to cover. Then, when they’re sprinkled over the salad you get crunchy bites of crouton with your bites of salad, just the right size.
tangy sharp amazing deliciousness, with the bread too? speechless.
We had a small dish of olive oil we brought home from Croatia for dipping our crusty bread in. If you’d been a fly on our wall, you’d have heard my nonstop moaning about how wonderful this meal was. Every bite, every crunchy tangy bite, I couldn’t help but moan just a little bit. It was SO SO GOOD.
Here’s how you make his dressing:
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
1 can anchovies
4-6 cloves garlic
1/2 tsp worcestershire sauce (optional)
1 egg, coddled
fresh grated parmesan cheese
Crush the garlic and anchovies in a mortar and pestle (or a large wooden salad bowl). Add the lemon juice, olive oil, worcestershire sauce (if desired) and coddled egg. Stir to thoroughly blend. Sprinkle several tablespoons of grated cheese over the dressing, and stir it in very well. You want enough cheese to make the dressing a reasonable consistency – thickened, but not gooey. Add fresh ground black pepper to taste.
Wash and completely dry your romaine leaves, and tear them roughly; thoroughly toss the romaine in the dressing until the leaves are evenly coated. This step is important! You don’t pour dressing over the salad on your plate, you really need to toss all the leaves in the dressing to give them a good coat. We always have extra parmesan on the table to sprinkle over the tossed salad.
Now, you’re ready to enjoy the best Caesar salad you’ll ever have. You’ll be spoiled from here on – don’t say I didn’t warn you.
mmmm…you are making me hungry for Caesar salad. Love the mortar and pestle idea for making the dressing. Anything to make cooking a more interesting activity (which then makes me actually WANT to cook). Hail Caesar!