Dear Icedhazelnut,
Here is an authentically made Caesar with a few added touches form our web site at
http://www.newitalianrecipes.com. The croutons are really worth the effort.
New Italian Recipes:
Caesar Salad Dressing
Homemade Italian Croutons:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Slice up a day old loaf of French bread into 1/2 to 3/4 inch cubes. (You can use regular bread if that is all you have). Toss bread in mixture of 3 T melted butter, 2-3 finely diced garlic cloves, 2 T of dried basil and 2 T of dried thyme.
Spread evenly on baking sheets. Bake for about 20 minutes, until browned but not over crusted.
Dressing Ingredients:
1 clove garlic, chopped finely
1/3 cup or so of good quality Extra Virgin Olive Oil. Note: Amount may very due to individual tastes. Remember, folks, this is gourmet cooking. (Taste and adjust, taste and adjust. This process is impressive to your guests, as well.)
8 anchovy fillets, chopped
Note: We usually use the kind that come in the jar packed in oil. That way, if you don't use them all, you can just leave the remainder in the refrigerator until you need them. Probably very soon, in our case.
1 1/2 T Worcestershire Sauce
1/4 teaspoon dry mustard or 1 t Dijon (optional) (We usually leave this out, but to some it adds to the dressing.)
5-6 sun-dried tomatoes (oil packed), chopped finely
Freshly ground pepper, to your own taste
Juice of 1 lemon
1 "coddled" Egg (1 minute in boiling water, then cooled, peeled and added in entirety) (To eliminate the fear of all those big word maladies.)
The Rest:
1 head Romaine Lettuce, leaves torn into edible pieces (If you tear the leaves away from the stems, and then discard the stem pieces, you will need to add more salad leaves to this amount of dressing). (We occasionally use mixed green salad because it's good and the stems are tender and very edible!) A salad spinner makes washing the lettuce a whole lot easier.
Homemade Italian croutons
1/3 cup parmigiano-reggiano cheese
Preparation:
Wash, tear and drain the lettuce.
In a large wooden salad bowl, mash the garlic with a fork or pestle.
Add chopped anchovy fillets, Worcestershire, mustard (optional), sun-dried tomato, lemon juice, and coddled egg.
Note: A coddled egg is a raw egg that has been boiled for about 1 minute to reduce the risk of botulism or some other contamination. If your eggs are fresh, the chances are "infinitesimally" small of contamination but we perform this step just to be as safe as possible).
Blend with garlic, mash the anchovies really well, then swirl all of this around the sides of the bowl until it is "coated".
Mix in the olive oil, sparingly, with a fork until it is well incorporated. The dressing should appear "creamy". Taste it to see if you have added just the right amount of olive oil. (You'll know.)
Add the romaine, then the croutons and cheese. Toss it all well to combine with the Caesar dressing.
Regards,
Dave