Caesar Salad Dressing

Caesar salad has been around the block, a few times in fact.  It seems like it is on every American menu I see, and I feel like you get a pretty standard salad made from Romaine lettuce, croutons, and Parmesan with a garnish of lemon.  The dressing, however, comes with much variation, so much so that I felt like I needed to do some research to learn what the true ingredients are suppose to be.

An Italian-born Mexican man named Caesar Cardini, who owned and operated a restaurant in San Diego, is credited with the creation of the Caesar Salad and its dressing in 1924.  Apparently it was the restaurant's fourth of July dinner rush, which depleted the restaurant's food supply, that marks the beginning of the Caesar Salad.  Caesar used the ingredients he had on hand to make do and it was only out of desperation and improvisation that he created the salad.

The original basic ingredients for the dressing were olive oil, Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, and coddled egg (a cooking method that requires eggs to be cooked in water below the boiling point).  Interesting enough, the Caesar salad dressing "purists"of today would say the two key ingredients for the dressing are raw egg and anchovy fillets, neither of which were in the original version.  The opposing camp of today are those who swear you will not notice the omission of the anchovy fillets or the raw egg.  That is generally because the raw or coddled egg is substituted with mayo or vinegar and because the true taste of anchovy actually came from the Worcestershire sauce. 

I'm in the camp that wants neither raw egg nor anchovy fillets.  My husband, well, he would prefer both.  So I made one variation of each:  one for me and one for my husband.   That leaves you in a pretty good place--you have the option of both;-)  Feel free to add, omit, increase, or decrease the ingredients to make it feel like your personal version, because in today's world, that's just what we do with Caesar Salad Dressing.  Try it on my family's favorite salad for Caesar Dressing....Chicken Caesar Pasta Salad.  You won't be disappointed.

Option 1:  Without anchovies or raw egg
INGREDIENTS:
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 clove garlic, minced
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

DIRECTIONS:
1.  Whisk mayonnaise, lemon juice, Dijon mustard, garlic, and Worcestershire sauce together in small bowl.

2.  Whisk continuously and add steady stream of olive oil.  Season with salt and pepper as desired.  Cover and refrigerate up to 24 hours.  Re-whisk before serving.

Recipe adapted from smittenkitchen.com
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Option 2:  With Anchovies and raw egg
INGREDIENTS:
2 anchovy fillets, packed in oil, finely chopped
1 egg
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1/2 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

DIRECTIONS:
1.  Whisk together anchovies, egg, garlic, balsamic vinegar, lemon juice, Dijon mustard, and Worcestershire sauce in small bowl.

2.  Whisk continuously and add steady stream of olive oil.  Season with salt and pepper as desired. Cover and refrigerate up to 24 hours.  Re-whisk before serving.

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