Homemade Caesar Salad Dressing ♥

How to make Caesar Salad dressing, a quick and easy mix of mostly pantry ingredients plus anchovies! If you love Caesar salads out, it's super-easy to get "good" at making them at home.

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For cooks, the possibilities for virgin culinary experiences are endless. The first roast chicken, the handmade pasta, the first pizza at home, the first pie crust — and now for me, the first Caesar salad.

For all the times I've raved about vegetables with anchovies — asparagus with anchovies? cauliflower with anchovies? roasted peppers with anchovies? slow-roasted tomato and lamb stew with anchovies? — it's thus no surprise that my first-time experience with Homemade Caesar Salad Dressing left me half speechless, with strength only to beg, "Will you pass the salad, please?" All that goodness in 15 minutes flat. Call me Caesar's bride.

I kinda sorta almost followed a recipe or two — well, except that those recipes called for up to a cup of olive oil. I used only two tablespoons — still, this felt perfectly balanced to me, maybe a tad tart but not unpleasingly. Since then, I've boosted the oil up to four tablespoons (that's my taste, you do yours, naturally) but my goodness, what is up with a f-r-e-a-k-i-n-g cup of oil?

But now that seminal Caesar has happened, can a seminal Green Goddess be far behind?

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HOMEMADE CAESAR SALAD DRESSING

Hands-on time: 15 minutes
Time to table: 15 minutes
Makes 3/4 cup

DRESSING
2 cloves garlic
4 anchovies (don't even think about skipping these! without anchovies it might be salad dressing but it's not Caesar salad dressing)
2 tablespoons lemon juice (apple cider vinegar works too)
1 large egg (if you don't eat raw eggs, don't!)
1 teaspoon coarse Dijon mustard
1/4 cup (18g) freshly grated Parmesan
2 - 4 tablespoons good olive oil
Salt if needed

Romaine lettuce leaves, preferably crisp center leaves
Additional grated Parmesan
Freshly ground black pepper

DRESSING In a mini food processor, combine the garlic and anchovies until both are super fine, doing them together first gives the blade something to grab onto. Add the lemon juice, egg and 1/4 cup Parmesan and process until smooth. If you can, drizzle 2 tablespoons olive oil through the opening, letting it incorporate slowly; if you can't, don't worry, just chuck in the oil and process until the dressing becomes thick and creamy. Take a quick taste, add a little more lemon juice, mustard, Parmesan or olive oil until the dressing tastes good to you.

TO SERVE Drizzle each leaf with a bit of dressing, just enough to coat (some times it's easier to just move the dressing to a bowl and then dip the leaves into the dressing). Arrange the leaves on a pretty plate, sprinkle a little extra Parmesan at the base, sprinkle the fresh pepper. Enjoy!

ALANNA's TIPS Choose another dressing for meal prep, perhaps the wonderful My Everyday Creamy Herb Salad Dressing? A Caesar dressing should be used up right away, that's because of the raw egg.

NUTRITION INFORMATION Per Tablespoon, dressing only, assumes 4 tablespoons olive oil: 56 Calories; 5g Tot Fat; 1g Sat Fat; 19mg Cholesterol; 82mg Sodium; 1g Carb; 0g Fiber; 0g Sugar; 2g Protein. WEIGHT WATCHERS Old Points 2 & PointsPlus 2 & SmartPoints 2 & Freestyle 2

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