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Caesar Salad

Introduction & method

This well-known salad of lettuce, croutons, Parmesan cheese and a delicious dressing has nothing whatsoever to do with the Roman Empire or any of the Caesars. It owes its name to Ceasar Cardini, who invented it at his restaurant in Mexico in the early 1920s.

Caesar Salad Recipe

Make the croutons


Heat your oven to 170° Celsius (335° Fahrenheit) for a fan/convection/airfryer oven, or 190° Celsius (374° Fahrenheit) for a conventional one, or gas 5. Tear or cut the bread into bite-sized chunks, lightly coat in olive oil, sprinkle with parmesan and bake for 10-15 minutesturning occasionally. Remove from the oven and let them cool.

Make the dressing


Mince the garlic and stir it into the olive oil. Leave for 5-10 minutes for the garlic to infuse into the oil, then strain the garlic out. Finely chop the anchovies, and blend into a paste by dragging a large knife across them at a shallow angle 10-15 times. Put the paste in a bowl and add the lemon juice, egg yolk, oil, Worcester sauce and the finely grated cheese. Whisk everything together until smooth. Caesar dressing should be quite runny, so you might need to add a little water to get the right consistency.

Make the Caesar salad


Tear the lettuce into a salad bowl. Add the croutons and toss with the dressing until everything is well-coated. Shave thin slivers of cheese using a vegetable peeler and arrange them on top the the salad.

Serve the salad


You can eat Caesar salad on its own, or accompanied by a grilled chicken breast or chunk of fish.



The video above is from the Keef Cooks YouTube channel. Click here to see the video recipe of Caesar Salad on YouTube.

 

Ingredients & Info


CROUTONS
 2-3 slices bread - sourdough or white bloomer
 1 tbsp olive oil
 2 tbsp Parmesan or Gran Padano cheese, finely grated
DRESSING
 2 tbsp Parmesan or Grana Padano cheese, finely grated
 4 anchovies
 1 clove garlic, crushed
 80 ml extra virgin olive oil
 1 tbsp lemon juice
 1 tsp Worcester sauce or Henderson's Relish
 1 egg yolk
SALAD
 250 grams little gem, romaine or cos lettuce
 1 tbsp Parmesan or Gran Padano cheese, shaved

UNITS:
Metric
US Customary/Imperial

Serves 4 
Prep time: 10 minutes.
Cooking time: 10 minutes.
Total time: 20 minutes.