The Best Caesar Salad Dressing
from a Caesar fanatic
I’m a Caesar salad kind of girl. If it’s on a menu, I will order it. Like sex and pizza, even when it’s bad, it’s still kind of good.
Needless to say, making me a truly great Caesar salad is a pretty reliable way to make me happy. So for the last year or two, Eric’s been making this Caesar salad dressing and for the last year or two I’ve been craving it. It is perfect — garlicky without lingering for days, punchy without scaring off the kids, rich and flavourful enough that a normal Wednesday night dinner feels like a treat. He makes a big old batch of it and we keep it in old jam jars in the fridge, where it would keep for a few weeks if we didn’t eat it all before*. It’s great as a dip, on flatbread, on a sandwich or on good old, old school lettuce.
It’s the ultimate version of classic Caesar dressing and it’s never anything less than exactly what I want.
Caesar Dressing
The quantities here are very approximate and it’s best to taste as you go. Want more punch? Add more garlic, mustard and ‘chovies! Keeps well in the fridge so go ahead and double this recipe so you have an easy dinner on hand.
1 big squeeze garlic paste (or 3 garlic cloves, finely minced)
3 - 4 minced anchovies (or a big squeeze anchovy paste)
the juice of 1 lemon
1 - 2 teaspoons (5 - 10 grams) Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 cup (240 grams) mayonnaise**
½ cup (50 grams) freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
big pinch salt
lots of freshly ground black pepper
To make the dressing, mix all the ingredients together in a bowl using a whisk or a wooden spoon until combined. Taste and adjust to your preferences!
For a classic Caesar salad, serve this dressing with chopped romaine lettuce, crunchy croutons*** and Parmigiano shavings (extra anchovies are optional). In the salad pictured, I added thinly sliced radish that I had sprinkled with salt, let sit for a bit and drained of the liquid that was released (so it tastes less like dirt).
*He wants me to tell you he thinks it’s best the day it’s made.
**Eric prefers using fancy mayo like Kewpie. I like it better with a good quality regular mayo like Hellman’s.
***Homemade Croutons: if you’ve got old bread laying around, cut it into small cubes and in a big bowl toss with a bit of extra virgin olive oil, plenty of salt and any seasoning you might want (I like garlic powder, and herbes de provence). Pour cubes onto a baking tray and bake in an oven preheated to 360F/180C for 10 - 20 minutes, until the cubes are just getting golden.
