Since we’re on the topic of salads, and it’s peak season for garden lettuce, I wanted to share a yummy Caesar dressing recipe with you. I love Caesar salads. In fact just today I plowed through an entire head of my garden Romaine just by adding this Caesar dressing and eating taco-style. OH. YUM.

A recipe for homemade Caesar dressing that actually tastes right has eluded me for years, and I would buy bottled Caesar as a very occasional treat. No more. I have found my recipe. I’ve adapted it from the original recipe in Alice Waters’s book, The Art of Simple Food. I can’t get enough of this dressing, and to me it tastes just like a true Caesar should.

In my recipe, I’ve left the raw egg yolk out. Not that I’m opposed to adding good quality raw eggs to food, but I find that the dressing didn’t need it, and more importantly, I’ve found that salad dressing with raw egg doesn’t store very well — it just doesn’t taste that great much past the day it was made. I rarely finish a batch of salad dressing in one sitting, so it’s important to me that the dressing will store well and still taste good.

Here’s my adapted recipe:

Caesar Salad Dressing

1 Tbsp red wine vinegar

1 Tbsp freshly-squeezed lemon juice (definitely use fresh lemon juice here, because bottled just won’t taste right in this application)

1-2 garlic cloves, finely chopped (I use two medium-small cloves so it won’t overpower)

1 – 1 1/2 tsp anchovy paste or finely chopped anchovy fillets (2-3 fillets) (anchovy adds great depth of flavor to your dressing without making it taste fishy)

freshly ground pepper, generous amount

salt to taste

1/4 cup olive oil

3 Tbsp parmesan cheese

[1 raw egg yolk] – Optional.

Combine red wine vinegar, lemon juice, chopped garlic, anchovy paste, and a generous amount of freshly-ground pepper. Whisk together or just shake vigorously in a jar with a lid (my preferred method).

Then add the olive oil and parmesan cheese and shake or whisk again to combine. Taste for salt and add as needed.

If you’re using the raw egg yolk, mix it in right before serving.

Serve the salad with an extra sprinkle of parmesan cheese, and croutons if you want to really do it right!

Store any extra dressing in the fridge.