A Caesar Salad Worth Sharing

Flavor reigns supreme in this surprisingly simple salad with multiple layers of well-balanced flavors. My friend Max got this recipe from his friend Justin, who got it from his father, showing that there are several stamps of approval that brought it to my plate. With a few adaptations, this recipe is all about mincing finely and mixing well – resulting in every bite having the same balance of flavors.

This salad is also a great example of how simple, whole foods made fresh at home are within reach of anyone looking to live a healthier lifestyle, or can round out a fitness plan no matter what your goals might be.

Ingredients for one medium-sized salad:
2 cloves of garlic 
1/3 cup of olive oil
 ½ teaspoon of dry mustard
 ¼ teaspoon of pepper
 ½ teaspoon of salt
 ½ teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce
1.5 ounces of anchovy fillets
1 lemon – juiced
 2 ounces of parmesan cheese
1 head of romaine lettuce
 Croutons to taste

Preparation:

• Infuse the oil with garlic – begin by finely mincing the garlic and then heat the oil-garlic mixture in the microwave for 10 seconds.
• Mix the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.
• Add the infused olive oil and the Worcestershire sauce and mix well with a rubber spatula.
• Mince the anchovies as finely as you’re able and add those to the mix, making sure all ingredients
  
  are as evenly spread about as possible.
• Grate the parmesan cheese with a fine-gauge microplane and add it to the mixture – again, mixing well so it’s evenly distributed.
• Just before serving, add the lemon juice and once again, mix it well so as much of the juice stays emulsified in the oil-heavy mixture.
• Dice the lettuce in mouth-sized pieces so as many pieces as possible
  
  get both crunchy spine and soft leaf and there’s plenty of surface area for dressing without needing to cut the pieces to eat them.
• Pour the dressing over the lettuce, and (yes) – mix it vigorously. You want to be sure every piece of lettuce in the bowl gets some of this delicious dressing on it.
• Add croutons last (so they don’t get soggy) and serve it up.

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Serves two.

Note: other Caesar salad dressings include egg. Max is not a big fan of eggs, so he just leaves them out. That simple omission doesn’t compromise the flavor, and it shows how being willing to “go off script” with recipes occasionally leads to great results.

Sometimes you simply don’t have an ingredient, or you simply don’t like it – in either case, it’s no big deal and you’ll soon discover how important (or not) that ingredient is to getting the result you want. In this case, leaving the egg out does not affect the flavor one iota, and it also gives this dressing a shelf-life in case there’s any leftover.

Enjoy!