Caesar Salad
This is an Italian-inspired dish from America, created by a man called Cardini. It has become
rather commercialized and a bit 1980s, but if you make it yourself it really is a very nice
rediscovery. It can be enjoyed as an accompaniment to meats but is hearty enough as a meal in
its own right! I find that Caesar salad is best served as a complete dish rather than a side, so if
you want to serve meat with it, place a couple of grilled chicken breasts on top (don’t mix them
into the salad).
If you prefer, buy a ready-made Caesar dressing, but do try and use your own home-grown
Romaine lettuces. Serves 2 as a main course
Ingredients:
1 clove of garlic, grated
100 ml extra-virgin olive oil
100 g stale bread, cubed, for croûtons
1 Romaine lettuce (Romana), washed and torn up
Worcestershire sauce
50 g Parmesan or Pecorino cheese, grated
salt and freshly ground black pepper
For the dressing
1 egg (see method)
2–3 anchovy fillets, chopped
juice of 1⁄2 lemon
1 clove of garlic, grated
Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 4/180°C.
Add 1 grated garlic clove to half the olive oil. Pour this oil on to the cubed bread until
absorbed, place on a baking tray and bake in the oven for about 15 minutes, or until browned.
Remove and allow to cool.
It is important to use a very fresh egg for the dressing as it will, in essence, be raw. If it is
not already at room temperature, place it in a glass of water for 10 minutes. Then ‘coddle’ the
egg by putting it into a cup and pouring boiling water over it, leaving it for no more than 1 minute
before removing and running under cold water. This process thickens the yolk and makes the
dressing even richer. Separate the yolk from the white.
Mix the dressing ingredients together, adding the egg yolk last.
Place the lettuce in a salad bowl and add the remaining oil, Worcestershire sauce to taste,
the grated cheese, and the Caesar dressing, mixing well to ensure the leaves are evenly coated.
Season to taste. Sprinkle the croûtons over the salad.
This is an Italian-inspired dish from America, created by a man called Cardini. It has become
rather commercialized and a bit 1980s, but if you make it yourself it really is a very nice
rediscovery. It can be enjoyed as an accompaniment to meats but is hearty enough as a meal in
its own right! I find that Caesar salad is best served as a complete dish rather than a side, so if
you want to serve meat with it, place a couple of grilled chicken breasts on top (don’t mix them
into the salad).
If you prefer, buy a ready-made Caesar dressing, but do try and use your own home-grown
Romaine lettuces. Serves 2 as a main course
Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 4/180°C.
Add 1 grated garlic clove to half the olive oil. Pour this oil on to the cubed bread until
absorbed, place on a baking tray and bake in the oven for about 15 minutes, or until browned.
Remove and allow to cool.
It is important to use a very fresh egg for the dressing as it will, in essence, be raw. If it is
not already at room temperature, place it in a glass of water for 10 minutes. Then ‘coddle’ the
egg by putting it into a cup and pouring boiling water over it, leaving it for no more than 1 minute
before removing and running under cold water. This process thickens the yolk and makes the
dressing even richer. Separate the yolk from the white.
Mix the dressing ingredients together, adding the egg yolk last.
Place the lettuce in a salad bowl and add the remaining oil, Worcestershire sauce to taste,
the grated cheese, and the Caesar dressing, mixing well to ensure the leaves are evenly coated.
Season to taste. Sprinkle the croûtons over the salad.
*taken from the book ‘From Seed to plate’ by Paolo Arrigo, published by Simon and Schuster