Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Caesar Salad with Homemade Croutons

I love a good Caesar salad in a restaurant but am often disappointed when I try and recreate the dish at home. Often times I'm disappointed because I fall back on a bottled Caesar dressing. This recipe offers an easy dressing that will knock your 'garlic' socks off! :-)

Ingredients:
Serves 4
  • 2 garlic cloves
  • S&P
  • rustic French bread (crusts removed, cut into small crouton size pieces)
  • 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
  • 1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
  • 1/4 teaspoon Dijon mustard
  • 3 tablespoons EVOO
  • 2 heads Romain lettuce (outer leaves discarded, inner leaves cut into strips)
  • cherry tomatoes sliced in half
  • Parmesan cheese
Directions:
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl, crush 1 garlic clove and blend with some salt and 1 tablespoon of EVOO. Add bread cubes and toss to combine. Spread cubes in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet. Bake until crisp and golden, about 20 minutes, turning once.
  2. Make the vinaigrette: In a small bowl, crush remaining garlic clove (I was tempted to add another garlic clove but was happy that I didn't; since the garlic is raw in the dressing it keeps its strength.) whisk in lemon juice, Worcestershire, mustard and pepper. Slowly whisk in the EVOO.
  3. In a large serving bowl, toss lettuce and tomatoes with vinaigrette and croutons. Serve immediately , garnished with shaved Parmesan.

2 comments:

BDUB said...

Mames,

Those croutons were so good we could just have those sometime. But yeah, that dressing packed a super garlic punch. Loved it.

B

Anonymous said...

Wow Mandy, this sound so yummy right now!!! Might have to try me some for lunch if I can scroung up the ingredients.